Geagea: Berri”s Dialogue Call Aimed at Wasting Time, refusal of dialogue in March 8 ranks

 

Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea expressed his doubts about Speaker Nabih Berri’s new initiative. “Yesterday the 14 March forces agreed that MP Saad Hariri should contact Speaker Berri and set a meeting in which he (Hariri) would convey to him (Berri) the priority of electing a new President of the Republic and then look into all matters,” Geagea said.

 

“We were surprised with Speaker Berri’s rejection of bilateral dialogue, which he announced through his explanation that dialogue must be held between 14 personalities in accordance with the dialogue table which was held in 2006,” he added.

 
Geagea said he was extremely surprised with Berri’s refusal to meet with Hariri to discuss the presidential election and other topics which were in fact not conditional on the election of a President of the Republic. “What is being asked is not dialogue but the transfer of focus from the election of a president to the table of dialogue, and subsequently the focus may be lost in the ramifications and complexities of the Lebanese crisis.”

Geagea stressed that no Lebanese party rejected dialogue. “We did not reject it at any time, but the March 8 team has never believed in dialogue. The proof is their closure of the Riyadh Al-Solh square and the problems created by burning tires.”