Fadlallah welcomes leaders return to negotiations

Source: Daily Star, 17-05-2008
BEIRUT: Senior Shiite Muslim cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said on Friday that any "consensus step" aimed at gathering the Lebanese around a dialogue table "is welcome," and urged Lebanon's religious and political officials to stop talking about sectarian strife.
In his weekly Friday sermon delivered from the Imamayn Hassanayn Mosque in Haret Hreik, Fadlallah said the main responsibility that falls upon participants in the dialogue being held in Qatar is to "rise above their sectarian calculations and foreign commitments."
"We welcome any step that makes the Lebanese go back to the table of dialogue and agreement despite the hidden reservations launched by the US administration," he said. "Participants in the Qatar-sponsored dialogue should rise above their political and confessional fanaticism and think of Lebanon as a people and nation where everyone can share its protection and development."
"Lebanon should be again an example for citizenship where all categories are equal and where discords are part of political balance," he added.
Fadlallah said coexistence and civil peace, as well as Islamic and national unity are to "be deposited in everyone's trust."
"There is no room for strife except in the minds of those who are addicted to sectarian speeches," he said. "As for the people, experiences have shown that they are living in national and Islamic unity away from political complications and even away from some religious tense speeches."
The cleric stressed the need to establish a national unity government that "plans for the interests of the Lebanese people."
Lashing out at the top leadership in the United States, Fadlallah said: "The US administration is the biggest threat to peace." He also accused the US of trying to instigate chaos in Lebanon and Syria.