My Hand is Extended to Other Christian Parties
Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea said he extends his hand to the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the Tashnag, Marada and all other Christian political foes in seeking a common understanding with them all over what currently divides them.
"We differ over the defense strategy. However, I don”t believe we differ over building our [Lebanese] state, development projects or over how to improve the environment. At least let us all attempt to come to an understanding over issues that we don”t differ over and leave aside all the logic regarding representations," Geagea said.
The LF leader held a meeting on Thursday with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora in the grand serail in Beirut. He told reporters after the meeting that the general atmosphere in the country is positive among all leaderships including Hizbullah. Geagea expressed his hope that this positive spirit would find tangible results on the ground in terms of political stances.
He said that the 2009 parliamentary election was a great and true democratic act in Lebanese and Middle Eastern standards. Geagea reiterated the LF stance against veto power in government saying: "our stance is very clear, this experience was unsuccessful and did not benefit the opposition with anything. I believe we should not return to this experiment."
He added that if the opposition does not wish to see the new parliamentary majority enjoy more than two-thirds representation in cabinet, "They could [simply] pass that veto power over to the president. The president could work through his ministers in cabinet with the parliamentary minority [March 8 Forces] on exercising veto power and if he does not wish to utilize his ministers then there is no veto," Geagea said.
The LF leader did not wish to comment on whether his party would support Amal leader Nabih Berri for another term as parliament speaker.
"The issue has not been decided yet because there are a lot of issues that need to be discussed," he said.
"We have certain remarks to make inside the new parliament, what happened 4 years ago which we shall honestly discuss either with Speaker Berri or any other candidate in this regard," Geagea said.