Berri Warns: Ministerial Committee is Not Dialogue Roundtable

Source: Daily Star, 24-7-2008
BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Wednesday that the ministerial statement committee's primary task is to draft a policy platform for the new government, while stressing that the committee, made up of an assortment of ministers from competing political coalitions, is not the "proper forum for a national dialogue."
Berri's comments came after he met with President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday to follow up on the progress of efforts to put together a ministerial statement for the newly-formed national unity cabinet.
The ministerial committee gathered for the sixth time on Wednesday, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at the Grand Serail, in order to continue hammering out a policy platform two weeks after the formation of government.
"The delay in putting out a statement has, until now, been within an acceptable range, especially since governments are legally accorded one month to draft [a platform]," the speaker added. "Nevertheless, any significant further delays may prove unbearable."
Berri attributed the delay to issues related to "the 'resistance' and relations with Syria, rather than problems regarding the betterment of our standard of living, the economic sector and reforms related to the Paris III donor conference."
He stressed that "the delay has little to do with issues related to the lives of citizens in a direct, day-to-day sense, but with the shaping of state authority, the role of the 'resistance' and [relations with] Syria."
Berri emphasized the importance of "decisions revolving around the previous ministerial statement and [UN Security Council] Resolution 1701," which he said made it vital for Lebanese leaders to arrive at a "balance that factors in" the national dialogue of 2006 and the Doha agreement of this year.
"Constructing a national defense strategy is all that remains from the set of issues dealt with during the [dialogue] of 2006," Berri stressed, while turning his attention to the possible agenda of talks between leaders. "This should be the central issue of any upcoming dialogue."
Berri added that "the resistance is more than willing to become part of a national defense strategy for Lebanon" and "act within that strategy rather than forming its entirety."
He also said that dialogue centering on relations with Syria, "in all honesty depend on resolving the question of Lebanese detainees in missing persons believed to be in Syria, as well as the establishment of formal relations."