Miqati Calls on Officials to Attend National Dialogue
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged Lebanese leaders on Saturday to attend the National Dialogue session scheduled to convene on June 11, stressing that stability requires the resumption of all-party talks.
“We have to maintain Lebanon's stability through the resumption of the national dialogue,” Miqati told reporters.
He called on the Lebanese to seek unity among each other.
President Michel Suleiman called for the National Dialogue after the security incidents in the country threatened to spiral out of control.
The March 8 coalition that makes up the majority of the cabinet said it would attend the all-party talks but the March 14 coalition, which al-Mustaqbal movement is part of, hasn’t yet announced an official stance on its participation.
But the alliance said earlier this month that dialogue should be held under a neutral salvation government and not Miqati’s cabinet.
Miqati stressed that the cabinet will not resign, slamming those who are holding it responsible for the recent developments in the country.
“I am convinced that the defect isn’t in this cabinet,” the premier said.
He urged the Lebanese to be “honest” with each other in order to maintain stability and peace in the country.
Miqati pointed out that the current situation in Lebanon will not change even if the current government resigned as the Lebanese are always bickering among each other.
“We have to safeguard Lebanon from the repercussions” of the turmoil that the neighboring countries and the region is passing through.
Asked about the developments regarding the abduction of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims in the Syrian province of Aleppo, Miqati said that the cabinet is following up the case since day one with all sides.
“I hope that the Turkish efforts would hold good news in the upcoming hours,” he stated.
The premier returned on Friday from a two-day visit to Turkey where he held talks with his counterpart Recep Tayyib Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and U.N. Chief Ban Ki-moon.
Erdogan stressed that Turkey would continue “intensive efforts” in order to secure the release of the pilgrims.
The whereabouts of the pilgrims remains unknown, however, a previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Syrian Revolutionaries -- Aleppo Province" announced Thursday that it is holding the Lebanese pilgrims who went missing in Syria on May 22.
"The kidnapped Lebanese are being looked after by us and are in good health," the group said in a statement received by Qatar-based satellite news channel al-Jazeera.
However, Abu Abdullah al-Halabi, the official spokesman for the “Syrian Revolutionary Council for Aleppo and its Countryside” denied on Friday that his council had anything to do with the group which claimed its responsibility for the kidnapping.
02 June 2012, 20:00
01
Everyone calling for dialogue, from the president, to the prime minister, to Patriach al Rai, to Ban Ki Moon, to Saudi Arabia, they can all take their dialogue and shove it. There is something called the constitution, something called the rule of law. There are government institutions and if March 8 leaders feel that the opposition needs to be involved in the discussion and the decision making process, they should resign the government and create a government that includes everyone as it would happen in any civilized democratic country, not call them for a dialogue table. I would go as far as calling for impeaching the president for breaking the constitution and calling for state discussions outside the framework of the state.
03 June 2012, 01:24
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Very well put hitech. May I add that there are certain things that should be illegal (not subject to dialogue), such as disarming all parties and individuals, such as treason and being influenced by financial foreign Governments via financial bribery, corruption and control of Public sectors of the economy by certain parties (such as Amal controlling the airport and seaport resources and Hezb controlling the seaport of Tyre and dozens of other examples (regardless whether it is M14 or M8). The call for dialogue is just a political circus to occupy the people and manipulate them for political gains in the upcoming elections no more and no less.
02 June 2012, 20:05
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March 14 should declare once and for all this government as illegitimate, the same way the Istiz and the paranoid General had done with the legitimate gouvernement then, of Fouad Siniora. This government came through a smokeless ' coup d' état ', and include parties that should be banned, as suspects (who gave the orders to the 4 saints!) in the assasinaition of countless number of prominent politicians and citizens. There is nothing to talk about with foul players, terrorists who have killed and keep plotting to kill their opponents in the country !
02 June 2012, 21:54
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Couldn't agree more hitech. But this is the way to change the power arithmetics earned through the ballots boxes. It's a way to overweight foul players, and outlaws, those who carry other arguments than those called by constitutional rules.
03 June 2012, 06:53
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I agree with you , follow the rule of the law. When a policeman manning a checkpoint tells you to stop you stop, when something goes against you you don't go out and start fires, or stage firefights.
when you are an opposition you don't like whats happening, you wait for the next election to change the govermant, not do everything in your power to harm the state, without caring what happens to the people.
That's the rule of the law
That's democracy that you guys want to preach
03 June 2012, 09:45
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Lebanon First!
Agreed. We all know that political dialogue will not lead to any solution to the current political standoff between March 8 and March 14 due to the rules that are already pre-set, including, first and formost, Hizbollah's arms. As far as National dialogue is concerned, it should be conducted in a new cabinet that is made up of March 8 and 14 and veto power should not be granted to either parties. Hizbollah's arms should certainly be up for discussion without any intimidation from March 8 forces. We all know, however that the political survival of March 8 forces is based on Hizbollah's arms and intimidation; the arms provide them with the political strenth they currently enjoy. God help Lebanon!
