Hizbullah Weapons into the Babylon Tower Dialogue
Hizbullah appeared heading to flooding the proposed national dialogue with an expanded agenda and an expanded list of participants as Premier Fouad Saniora warned that such a trend would only end up in a "Babylon tower" disarray.
The Hizbullah trend was outlined by its second in command Sheik Naim Qassem who said the agenda for the forthcoming National Dialogue Conference that would be sponsored by President Michel Suleiman, "is not made up of only one item."
"The defense strategy is only one of many items. Other items are included, the main topics are an economic perspective, tackling the social status, adopting a mechanism to implement decisions of previous dialogue sessions and keeping Lebanon away of regional and international policies," Qassem told a Hizbullah Rally.
However, Saniora responded quickly by emphasizing on a single-item agenda for the proposed national dialogue.
"The National Dialogue Conference has a sole and clearly defined topic (to tackle) that is the defense strategy," Saniora told al-Mustaqbal daily.
"If we open the door to expanding the dialogue we would end up like the Babylon Tower," Saniora stressed.
He cautioned against flooding the dialogue agenda with other topics than the defense strategy, which in Lebanese political parlance refers to Hizbullah weapons, saying such an attempt would contradict with the role of constitutional institutions.
"Then, what would be the role of the cabinet and that of parliament?" Saniora asked.
The March 14 majority alliance insists that only the 14 leaders who took part in previous dialogue sessions should be invited to resume their deliberations under the auspices of President Suleiman, while Hizbullah appears pressing for including more participants in the discussions.
Sources close to the minority said MP Bahij Tabbara, who had broken away from the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, is to visit Baabda Palace early this week to inform Suleiman of his proposal to invite "independent" figures to the national dialogue.