Franjieh: Ready to Reconciliate but with White Hearts

Source: Al-Manar TV, 9-10-2008
While efforts were still ongoing to reach reconciliation within the Christian community starting by a meeting that would join the head of the Marada movement former minister Suleiman Franjieh and the Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, political circles seemed ruling out the possibility that a breakthrough could be reached, paving the way for such meeting to take place soon given the stubbornness of some politicians who claim at one side that they are ready for the meeting "at any time" and reject at the other the participation of the Christians' political reference represented by MP Michel Aoun.
Tourism Minister Elie Marouni reflected Thursday the pessimistic atmosphere when he said that the "political reconciliation is impossible at this stage since there are two courses which can't agree on a common concept." Speaking to the Voice of Lebanon radio station, he claimed that if any meeting between the Marada Movement and the Lebanese Forces took place then it would be "a sham," considering that reconciliations between the March 14 and March 8 forces would be a "media circus."
However, Geagea has sought, once again on Wednesday, to pretend being the reconciliation advocate, urging Franjieh to "facilitate" the meeting between both of them in order to "diffuse the tensions in the North." He claimed "any delay in arranging this meeting will only aggravate the situation in the north and expose everyone to regrettable violent incidents that are in nobody's interest."
However, Geagea did not have to wait a lot before getting Franjieh's answer. The Marada chief reiterated once again his insistence in the attendance of the head of the Reform and Change parliamentary bloc and the political reference for Christians MP Aoun to the meeting in order to guarantee the meeting would be fruitful.
"Why do they reject Aoun's participation although I consider him as a father to me and I feel relaxed to have him near me?" Franjieh asked. "They want MP Nayla Moawad's participation. They think that they can confront Franjieh in Zgharta (Northern Lebanon) by Nayla Moawad from Zgharta. They are handling it on a tit-for-tat concept, which we wouldn't accept," Franjieh told Orange Television on Wednesday evening. "Let them accept reconciliation as we had proposed it. If we say no, then they can say Hezbollah and Syria prevented us" from going into reconciliation, he added.
He rejected the concept of bilateral reconciliation with the Lebanese Forces Party, saying the move should be thorough. "If something bad happens to us it would be Samir Geagea who has committed it or benefited from it because he is the only person who could benefit from such an escalation to say later the Syrians killed Suleiman Franjieh because he was headed to reconciliation and the Syrians did not want reconciliation," Franjieh emphasized.
"We are ready for reconciliation at any time, but with white hearts (good intentions)," Franjieh stressed anyway.
SULEIMAN WOULD RATHER STEER AWAY FROM DETAILS OF INITIATIVES!
Meanwhile, sources close to President Michel Suleiman quoted him as being surprised at the media-spread rumors regarding the closeness of a reconciliation meeting between the Lebanese Forces and the Marada Movement in Baabda.
According to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, President Suleiman would rather steer away from the details of initiatives and play the role of a direct mediator. However, he is "prepared to open the doors of the Baabda presidential palace anytime in order to sponsor reconciliations."