March 14 to attend National Dialogue

The head of Lebanon's Future Movement bloc, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, announced following talks with President Michel Sleiman Wednesday that the March 14 coalition would take part in the August 16 National Dialogue session. “Our decision to participate is based on the founding principles of the March 14 coalition,” said Siniora. “We believe in national unity, the rule of law, the state and sovereignty, whereby protecting the nation is the responsibility of the state and not that of a party or a sect.” The Sidon MP said that for dialogue to be “fruitful,” it should scrap the “duality of military decision-making,” saying decisions of war and peace ought to be made exclusively by the state. Siniora added that the Dialogue should also discuss strengthening the capabilities of the Lebanese Army so as to enable it to protect the nation. “Any dialogue that does not abide by these principles, particularly the [principle concerning non-state arms], will be a superficial one that will not achieve the intended goals,” he said. A Future Movement source, one close to Siniora, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision to participate came as a result of the cabinet meeting one of the March 14 coalition’s conditions, namely that the Telecommunications Ministry release telecoms data to security agencies. The agencies are investigating assassination attempts against Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea and Batroun MP Butros Harb. The source also said recent statements by Sleiman had contributed to the opposition suspending its boycott of the all-party talks. Siniora and Sleiman discussed the issue of March 14’s participation in the National Dialogue at the presidential palace for an hour. Meanwhile, a source from the Marada Movement said it was highly unlikely that its head MP Sleiman Frangieh would attend the talks. The Zghorta MP was embroiled in an argument with Sleiman this week after Frangieh slammed the president for shifting stances and accused him of being Syria's man in Lebanon when he was army commander between 1998 and 2008. It was still unclear whether Frangieh's ally Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun would boycott the talks in solidarity. But an FPM source told Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star that the group was mulling this option. As with the most recent session, the Lebanese Forces, a component of the March 14 movement, will not be taking part in the all-party talks. “The Lebanese Forces will continue its boycott of the Dialogue,” an LF source told The Daily Star, adding that the decision had been made in coordination with Siniora. “We will not take part because we do not believe that Hezbollah will give up its arms,” the source said. The coalition insists that the Dialogue focus on discussion of a national defence strategy to defend Lebanon against foreign aggression. Hezbollah maintains that its weapons should remain an integral part of any defence strategy and has repeatedly said it is not willing to surrender its arsenal. Sleiman initiated the talks with the aim of defusing political tension between the country’s rival camps. In a statement released by his press office Tuesday, Sleiman stressed the need for intra-Lebanese dialogue in which a defense strategy would be the main topic of discussion. Besides discussing Hezbollah’s weapons, March 14 had also demanded that the resistance group lift its protection of those suspected of participating in attempted assassinations. In a speech earlier this month, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said a genuine and realistic national defense strategy must be based on coordination between the Lebanese Army and the resistance. He added that in addition to a national defense strategy, Lebanon needed a “national liberation strategy” in order to liberate the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shuba Hills, and the Lebanese part of the border town of Al-Ghajar. Nasrallah also expressed his belief that the March 14 coalition is not interested in discussing a defence strategy, but only in having Hezbollah surrender its arms.