Franjieh says opposition has constructive stance

Source: The Daily Star, 19-04-2008
BEIRUT: Head of the Marada Movement and former Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh said on Friday that the compromises which the opposition has approved "reflected our constructive stance and commitment to dialogue and consensus." Franjieh called on the governing coalition to accept "even the smallest compromise" to find a solution to the present problem. "The March 14 Forces should stop making a big issue out of the electoral law, for the opposition supports the 1960 electoral law and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri expressed his approval over this law half an hour before he was assassinated," he added after meeting with MP Ali Hassan Khalil, from Speaker Nabih Berri's Loyalty to the Resistance Parliamentary bloc. Khalil said the statements of US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch about the need to elect a president immediately constitute a blow to the Arab initiative based on a package deal over the presidential elections the establishment of a national-unity government and the adoption of a new electoral law.