Berri: Resistance Ready to Be Part of Defense Strategy, Not All the Strategy
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced on Wednesday that "the resistance is prepared to be part of the defense strategy, not all the defense strategy."
Berri made the remark to reporters at the Republican Palace of Baabda after holding a nearly one-hour meeting with President Michel Suleiman.
The meeting was apparently aimed at working out a settlement to the controversial role of Hizbullah”s resistance that has been blocking, among other topics, progress in efforts to draft a policy statement for the new cabinet.
Berri said he made the proposal "in the name of the resistance."
The speaker”s rather vague proposal contradicted with an earlier remark he made in his dialogue with reporters, reiterating that the previous cabinet”s policy statement spoke of the "resistance right to proceed with the liberation."
"What is wrong with this clause?" Berri asked in an apparent proposal to re-adopt it in the new policy statement.
As for relations with Syria, Berri said the issue was tackled during the 2006 national dialogue, asking "why should we elaborate on what we have agreed on?"
He criticized the ministerial committee trying to draft the new policy statement, saying its members are behaving as if they were a "national dialogue" conference.
"Let the president handle his own mission," Berri said in reference to the national dialogue conference that Suleiman is to sponsor.
"What is more important than all texts is not to lose confidence in each other," Berri noted.
"I”m afraid that what is happening now is delaying solutions," he added.