04 October 2008

BEIRUT: Maronite League chief Joseph Tarabay said on Friday that efforts to achieve a general Christian reconciliation would begin by reconciling the Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Marada Movement. "We would start with the pressing issue, which is reconciliation between the Lebanese Forces and Marada," Tarabay said after a meeting of rival Maronite MPs at the league's headquarters in Karantina.

He said the rival MPs agreed on not resorting to violence to resolve their differences.

"The participants also agreed that any Christian reconciliation should earn the blessings of both Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir and President Michel Sleiman," he added.

Asked if Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun would be invited to attend the reconciliation between LF chief Samir Geagea and Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh, Tarabay said Aoun was invited to "sponsor all reconciliations."

Aoun did not attend the meeting  on Friday and sent members of his parliamentary bloc to represent him. Aoun's bloc was represented by MPs Farid al-Khazen, Salim Aoun, Ibrahim Kanaan, Chamel Mozaya, Camille Khoury, Youssef Khalil, Neamatallah Abi Nasr, and Nabil Nicholas.

MPs Nader Sekkar and Pierre Serhal also attended the meeting on behalf of independent Christian MPs within the March 8 coalition.

The March 14 Forces were represented by MPs Butros Harb, Nayla Mouawad, Robert Ghanem, Hadi Hobeich, George Adwan, Abdullah Farhat, and Elie Aoun.

Adwan told reporters after the meeting that the LF was looking forward to reconciling with Marada, adding that such reconciliation required the holding of a meeting between Geagea and Franjieh.

However, senior Marada official Vera Yammine told The Daily Star on Friday that a meeting between Geagea and Franjieh was not likely to yield any results if held away from a comprehensive Christian reconciliation.  

"We were the first to speak of reconciliation on the condition that it would be a comprehensive one," she said.

"We had previous contacts with the Lebanese Forces, but every time we proposed the holding of a meeting, the LF used to veto Aoun's participation ... Aoun's attendance is necessary in our opinion given that he represents the majority of Christians in Lebanon," she added.

Yammine said that Marada would not mind holding a four-way meeting among Franjieh, Geagea, Aoun, and former President Amin Gemayel.

Also on Friday, Sfeir told reporters at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport before embarking on a visit to the Vatican that he backed all reconciliation efforts in Lebanon, be it among Christians or other communities in the country.

Sfeir acknowledged that previous attempts by the Church to achieve inter-Christian reconciliation have failed, but "we could try again."

His remarks drew criticism from Aoun, who accused the patriarch of losing his memory.

Aoun told reporters at his residence on Friday that he had accepted earlier an honorary document that was forwarded to him by the patriarch regarding inter-Christian relations.

Asked if he was ready to reconcile with the LF, Aoun said that such reconciliation had already taken place when he visited Geagea at the latter's prison cell in May 2005.

"We are not enemies to reconcile ... We either reach an understanding or compete through democratic means," he said.

On the chances of his reconciling with Mouawad, Aoun said that the latter had to first apologize to him after she implicated him in the assassination of her later husband, former President Rene Mouawad.

Mouawad was killed by a car bomb immediately after his inauguration in 1989.

Aoun went on to launch a vehement attack on Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, accusing him of sectarianism and corruption. The FPM leader said that Siniora was treating Lebanese citizens "as if they were his clients."

Former Prime Minister Najib Miqati criticized Aoun's attack on Siniora and advised the retired general to hold the premier or any other minister accountable before Parliament and not the media.

Also on Friday, conciliatory meetings between Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) continued as representatives from both parties met on Friday under the auspices of Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan.

Efforts to reconcile Christian leaders have kicked off following a number of rapprochements between the country's Muslim leaders.

Such rapprochements were triggered by PSP leader Walid Jumblatt, who was the first to extend his hand to his Druze rival, Arlsan.  

Jumblatt went on to engage Hizbullah as representatives from his party met with resistance representatives under Arslan's auspices.

A similar effort to that of Jumblatt was carried out by Hizbullah toward Future Movement leader Saad Hariri as a delegation from the group visited the March 14 leader late in September to prepare for a meeting between Hariri and Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The Nasrallah-Hariri meeting is still awaiting a number of security arrangements.

In a separate development on Friday, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri made a surprise visit to the Presidential Palace and met with Sleiman.

No details from the meeting were available when The Daily Star went to press.