President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday launched the Conference on National dialogue with a call to adopt a defense strategy "based on our armed forces and benefiting from the resistance capabilities."
"Let us adopt a defense strategy that guarantees our points of strength, including diplomacy," Suleiman told the 14 participants in the conference and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
He called the conferees to work out a "framework for dialogue in a way that shows that nothing is closed" to discussion.
"Failure is banned," Suleiman declared.
He urged the conferees to "make sacrifices and concessions … for Lebanon."
Suleiman also called for "reconciliation among participants in the dialogue."
"We are a small and pluralist nation that has no other option but to remain united," Suleiman stressed.
He said "difficulties confront our march. Once we called for the dialogue, the Basiour crime was carried out."
The car bombing that killed Saleh Aridi last week, according to Suleiman, was carried out by "enemies of Lebanon, whom we should confront by achieving reconciliation."
He urged the media to back dialogue, saying good news might not emerge soon.
Israel, according to the president, remains Lebanon”s basic enemy "it occupies our land and threatens us."
Suleiman launched the dialogue 42 minutes behind schedule, after holding side meetings with Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri, Hizbullah Representative Mohammed Raad, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat.
The meeting was seen as an attempt by the president to facilitate reconciliation between Hizbullah and Mustaqbal.
Moussa also held a meeting with Saniora prior to the formal session.
Moussa is to address the closed session, apparently with the aim of briefing the conferees on regional developments and threats that require reconciliation among the various Lebanese factions.
The participants are: Berri, Saniora, Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, Hariri, Jumblat, Raad, Tripoli Gathering representative Mohammed Safadi, Popular Bloc leader Elie Skaff, MP Michel Murr, MP Butros Harb, MP Ghassan Tueni, MP Hagop Pakradonian and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.
Berri, who had presided over the 2006 dialogue cycle, represents the AMAL movement that is part of the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance.
Press reports said Berri would propose in the closed session expanding the list of participants in the dialogue conference, which has already been rejected by leaders of the March 14 forces.
Observers believe the conferees would not tackle in the first session any of the topics listed on the dialogue agenda, mainly the national defense strategy.
Deliberations would focus mainly on settling the controversy over the list of participants and topics on the agenda.
The Hizbullah-led alliance also wants to add further topics to the agenda, including economic issues.
The daily An-Nahar said an official from Qatar had visited Beirut after Suleiman issued the invitations to the dialogue conference and held talks with officials without relaying any messages.
The Qatari official, who was not identified, held the round of separate meetings in line with Qatar”s role as sponsor of the Doha Accord.
Moussa told reporters Monday the dialogue conference is "important because Lebanon now has a leader (Suleiman) on top of the helm. He thinks, acts and tries to unify ranks."
Picture: Lebanese President Michel Suleiman laughs during the opening session of the national dialogue where leaders of 14 political factions meet for talks at the Presidential Palace in suburban Baabda, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. Lebanon”s deeply divided rival factions on Tuesday began national reconciliation talks on the controversial issue of Hezbollah”s weapons amid skepticism the dialogue can help bridge differences.
(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)