Berri: Resistance puts Lebanon on World map

 

31/08/2007 Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Friday that the Lebanese national opposition is ready to give up its demand for the formation of a new government with veto powers in return for consensus on a new president.
Berri made the offer in a mass rally held by the Amal movement at the Bekaa valley town of Baalbek marking the 29th anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr and his two companions, Sheikh Mohamad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine in Lybia.
"Let us all agree on electing a president on the base of consensus and a two-third quorum for the Parliamentary session that would elect the head of state," Berri said.
In return for that, he declared, "The opposition would not want the formation of a new government or the expansion of the present government prior to the Presidential elections."
After agreeing on the "principle" of his proposal, Berri said he would be committed to "launching consultations with all the sides to agree on the name of the forthcoming president."
"The more we speed up the consensus approach the better. The sooner the better to end the sit-in (In Riyadh Soloh Square), keep the turmoil away and avoid evil that hangs over the last 10 days" of the constitutional schedule to elect a new head of state," Berri said.
"I am confident that we will reach consensus during the constitutional schedule on a president," Berri added.
Berri stressed that it is impossible to come up with any solutions concerning the presidential elections in the presence of a clear constitutional text, adding that the "majority's claims concerning the necessity of electing a president in a different way is not suitable." Speaker Berri added that there must be two thirds of the MPs in the presidential session, stressing that the MP is not allowed to elect unless the two-third quorum was available according to the Lebanese constitution.
Berri, addressing a packed rally, warned that "many (factions) are re-training (militias) and sharpening the knives."
"Everybody awaits a solution and the solution lies in the election of a president. It is an exit," he added.
Berri attacked the unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora calling it a "cabinet of ghost for failing to invest the victory achieved by Hezbollah last summer's Israeli aggression against Lebanon.
"Was it not for the resistance, Lebanon would have been on the World map as it is now," Berri said.
He said that in all previous Arab-Israeli wars, the Arabs lost and claimed to be victory "In this (last summer's) war we emerged victory and we say we've lost."
Berri stressed that all attempts to stir up discord between the Amal movement and Hezbollah will end with failure.
He also warned against an alleged new plot to nationalize Palestinian refugees and said that combating this scheme requires collective Arab efforts. Such an alleged plot, Berri said, would be implemented during the conference that U.S. President George Bush called for to discuss Middle East peace next fall. The Speaker also predicted that the Bush-proposed Middle East peace conference "would not achieve the required results by avoiding Syria and over passing half of Palestine." He was referring to the Hamas movement.
Israel, he said, is working on "absorbing the Arab Peace initiative, and instead of heading to peace it is preparing for war against Syria and the resistance in Lebanon."
He said efforts were being made to "change the nature of conflict from an Arab-Israeli conflict to an Arab-Persian (Iranian) conflict to unleash a Muslim Shiite-Sunni turmoil."
"I warn against the dimensions of this plot and its repercussions on the Arab World, the Palestinian cause and Lebanon," he said.
He said Israel would "demand compensations for Jews who had left Arab countries" to settle in the Jewish state that was created in Palestine in 1948.
Berri also warned against any attack on Iran, stressing that such "a strike would put the whole region (Middle East) on fire."