Berri Calls on President For a Clarification on Jbeil, Announces his Nomination to Head Parliament
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called on President Michel Suleiman to provide a clarification regarding electoral developments in Jbeil following the withdrawal of Emile Naufal from the electoral race.
“I call on the president to provide a clarification regarding the Jbeil district, so that he may not appear as a party in the electoral battle,” Berri said Friday to Marcel Ghanem on the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation television program ‘Kalam En Nass’.
Berri said that Naufal’s withdrawal from the electoral race in Jbeil was in response to a request by Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea.
The Speaker asserted that election’s outcome would be “very close”, calling the 2009 parliamentary elections “decisive” for those outside of Lebanon and “unifying” for those within Lebanon.
“The elections will unite the Lebanese especially if the opposition wins,” Berri said.
He added that the electoral atmosphere is relaxed in south Lebanon “because the whole issue is a referendum on the issue of the resistance.” The Amal Shiite group leader added that what gathers between the mosque and the church for the Amal movement is solidarity.
Regarding recent comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad concerning the Lebanese elections, Berri said the Iranian president’s words were directed to the Iranian interior “so why are they attempting to export it to the Lebanese interior.”
He explained that president Ahmadinejad is himself a candidate to the Iranian presidential elections on June 12th , hence his remarks were purely election oriented.
“Whether March 14 or 8 Forces win the parliamentary election in Lebanon, we will have a unity government after the elections. This is one of the main pillars of the S-S formula [Syrian-Saudi reconciliation] and this is what I have been calling for,” Berri said.
The parliament speaker reiterated his stance in holding to the Taef accord and to Paris-3 resolutions and to veto powers in government regardless of who wins in the elections.
Regarding the issue of a centrist parliamentary bloc, Berri said that he informed president Suleiman that such a bloc is formed after the legislative elections, not before it.
Berri affirmed that following the elections he will run again to head parliament. He stressed that parliament was and shall remain to constitute the safety valve against all Lebanese contradictions, adding that the role of the speaker of parliament is to stay next to the president in directing the national dialogue in the country.
Asked about his relationship with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat: “my relationship with Walid shall not change and the sky is blue. What binds us is the fact that he does not lose his way and direction.”