Areslan as host, Raad & Jumblatt meet: Participants followed up on everything achieved by the truce & reconciliation

Source: English.hizbullah.tv, 22-01-2009

Once again, the residence of Minister Talal Erslan in Khaldeh was the scene of a "frankness" meeting between Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party.

It's in this residence that the head of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt accompanied by a PSP delegation and the head of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Mohamad Raad accompanied by a Hizbullah delegation met on Wednesday night, returning Lebanese reconciliation efforts back into light on the eve of "decisive" parliamentary elections.
According to Raad, the meeting aimed at following up on everything achieved by the truce and reconciliation that followed the May 2008 events, and touched on domestic, regional and international issues.

Commenting on a potential meeting between Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Jumblatt, MP Raad noted that all things are possible. "As long as we have agreed on the strategy, everything is open to discussion," he pointed out.

He added that every party was engaged in reflection and self-evaluation after the May events and the Doha Agreement, and said he hoped that such reconsiderations would be complemented by an agreement concerning defense strategy and other unresolved issues.

Afterward, Jumblatt said that all parties had the right to stake out their own positions, and that the issues raised in the national dialogue [defense strategy] should be restricted to the roundtable.
He added that a dream came true on Tuesday, when Barack Obama was sworn as US president, a dream he hoped would be repeated in the Arab world.

"I say one more time that a humble job in New York is better than leadership in Lebanon," the Druze leader said.
Erslan, in turn, said the meeting had been prearranged as a follow-up of reconciliation efforts that have been worked on after the May events in Mount Lebanon and its ramifications in the Lebanese domestic landscape. "Despite the fact that the PSP and Hizbullah asked me to foster an agreement between them, I announce that I have my own political position, which is in support of the Resistance," Erslan emphasized.

Meanwhile, Lebanese daily An-Nahar said that the talks were marked by honesty. It said both men agreed on the need to follow up all-party national talks on the basis that each side adheres to its stance and alliances.

Lebanese daily As-Safir for its part said talks focused on two topics - ways to protect Lebanon in the face of an "Israeli" offensive and the prospects for future Lebanese-Syrian relations. It quoted Raad as responding to Jumblat's criticism on Syria, saying: "If some believed that a problem does exist with Syria, this problem whatever it was could be solved and dealt with. But the dispute with ‘Israel' is not subject to solution." Raad believed that ties with Syria should be based on this vision.