DOHA (Agencies)
Lebanon's bickering political leaders on Saturday continued Arab-brokered crisis talks in Qatar in a bid to end a long-running feud that drove their country to the brink of a new civil war, with majority leaders insisting confidence-building measures be the first item on the agenda.
The talks officially started on Friday evening with a brief opening session chaired by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani who stressed the need to preserve Lebanon's unity and hoped the rivals would reach an agreement. He then adjourned the meeting until the first round of substantive talks on Saturday.
Qatari mediation reportedly continued overnight with the emir shuttling between rival parties, according to the Lebanese pro-government newspaper An-Nahar.
After 65 people were killed in nearly a week of fighting, the U.S.-backed government and Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Syria and Iran agreed to a national dialogue aimed at electing a president and forming a unity government.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament majority leader Saad Hariri flew to Qatar on a private plane on Friday.
Christian leader Samir Geagea, former president Amin Gemayel and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt of the ruling coalition arrived separately on a Qatari aircraft that also brought opposition member and parliament speaker Nabih Berri and his ally Christian leader Michel Aoun.
The head of the militant Shiite Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah is not in Qatar, reportedly because of security concerns, and is represented by Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad.
Berri and Jumblatt met during the flight, but the Hezbollah delegation did not mix with the pro-government delegations, the pro-opposition Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.
An-Nahar said that in addition to seeking agreement on a unity government and a new electoral law for legislative elections due next year, the Doha talks are also expected to address the question of weapons.
Hezbollah was the only Lebanese group which did not have to hand over its guns to the government following a national reconciliation reached in the Saudi-brokered Taef agreement in 1989, because it was fighting the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.
But a majority leader said, before Saturday’s talks, that the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons had to be the first item on the agenda after last week’s unrest, according to Dubai-based AlArabiya TV.
The leader, unnamed in the all-news channel, said confidence can not be restored without solving the issue of Hezbollah weapons first.
The feuding politicians agreed on Thursday to launch a dialogue as part of a six-point plan, following Arab League mediation led by Sheikh Hamad.
Under the deal the rivals undertook "to shore up the authority of the Lebanese state throughout the country," to refrain from using weapons to further political aims and to remove militants from the streets. |
