Reconciliatory Meeting in Baabda Wednesday between Jumblat, Franjieh
President Suleiman will invite Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh to a reconciliatory meeting that will be held in Baabda on Wednesday, according to information obtained by the Central News Agency.
The agency added that the meeting will be tripartite and will include a lunch banquet. It also added that the meeting was not freshly planned but it was rather prepared in the period that accompanied the positive atmospheres of cabinet formation and prior to President Suleiman”s sudden visit to Syria.
The meeting was planned during the latest visit of MP Jumblat to the Baabda Palace, and the president was supposed to appoint a date. It is supposed to kick off political reconciliations seen as necessary after the formation of a government that gathers all political parties, added the sources.
Marada Movement sources confirmed on Tuesday to the Central News Agency the meeting will take place and added that "the meeting has become certain, according to us, any meeting that takes place in the presidential palace — the first Christian post in the state — is seen as constructive, positive, and a cornerstone for a new period."
The sources considered the meeting as a first between Marada and PSP, and pointed at the last meeting in Bnachei between Franjieh and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi which was "purely developmental", the thing reflected in "statements of Franjieh and Aridi".
Answering a question on whether the meeting will make way for Jumblat”s visit to Syria, the sources urged not to rush things.
Earlier, Franjieh said Saturday that he disagreed with Jumblat in the past "over a certain political point of view" but he added that they meet on the same political point of view again.
Franjieh was speaking after a meeting with Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi who visited the Marada Movement leader”s house in Bnachei.