Tensions Prevent Nasrallah-Hariri Meeting
Mustaqbal Movement official Ghattas Khoury on Thursday said persisting tensions block reconciliation with Hizbullah.
Khoury, in a television interview, said President Michel Suleiman had proposed a meeting between Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri.
"We had informed the president that he can proceed with the required contacts to facilitate the meeting," Khoury said.
However, he said: "But if they don”t want to apologize to Beirut, there is no need to open old wounds."
He criticized Nasrallah for defending in a recent statement the May attack on Beirut.
If the Hariri-Nasrallah meeting is to be held "there should be agreement on a number of principles, because using weapons for domestic purposes strips the resistance of its reason to exist."
"No resistance faction uses weapons domestically," Khoury noted.
"If using weapons for domestic purposes is permitted, then Hizbullah, which is at odds with Mustaqbal movement today, could use its weapons against the Progressive Socialist Party tomorrow and after that against the Free Patriotic Movement," he concluded.
Khoury made the remarks a few hours after the pro-Hizbullah daily al-Akhbar said preparations were underway for a Hariri-Nasrallah meeting.
The report said aides to both leaders would hold discussions to agree on the venue of the proposed meeting that would be the last in a series of reconciliation efforts that started in Tripoli.
Hariri had called for an "honorable reconciliation," stating that such move requires "valiant men."