MP Ali Hassan Khalil comments on Murr statements

Source: Nowlebanon.com, 10-04-2008
MP Ali Hassan Khalil of the Liberation and Development bloc said Speaker Nabih Berri visited Syria as the head of the Lebanese Parliament in order to open the Lebanese dossier. "President Berri extended two invitations to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora a year and a half ago to go to Damascus. But the position of the majority prevailed," he added.
In an interview with OTV, Hassan Khalil critiqued the perceived right of one party and political trend to go on tours abroad and exercise the powers of a national president.
"We are convinced that national dialogue should be in the hands of the president, and the dialogue is not the property of Speaker Berri but a need of all Lebanese, after they saw they had reached a dead end, especially after the Arab Summit," Hassan Khalil remarked. He added that national dialogue did not demand that Free Patriotic Movement leader General Michel Aoun give up on his political agenda, but that he express his opinion in the next government.
Hassan Khalil stressed that there was no fundamental problem within the opposition but "simply difference."
"Speaker Berri said that he could not begin any dialogue unless all interlocutors were present," Khalil added.
"We respect everyone's opinion, and I do not think that the separation of MP Michel Al-Murr from the Change and Reform bloc will affect the opposition per se," he said. "Murr said publicly that he did not separate from the bloc to join the pro-government forces."
Khalil accused the ruling majority of wasting time until the next parliamentary elections in order to maintain the 2000 electoral law.
The MP stressed his bloc's support for Army Commander General Michel Sleiman as the next president, and also said he supported the position of Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, which was "differentiated from the rest of his allies who refuse dialogue."
"We consider it a positive step, despite the political differences between us," Hassan Khalil noted.