DOHA: Qatar yesterday ruled out the possibility of inviting feuding political factions in Lebanon for talks in Doha to iron out their differences and said they (Lebanese) should try to enforce Taif and Doha pacts.
Lebanon's government collapsed yesterday after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the cabinet over a UN probe into the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
Qatar's message to all Lebanese political factions is that they should try and thrash out their differences on their own through dialogue, keeping public interest above everything else. They shouldn't complicate the problem, Qatar said.
"I had made a private visit to Lebanon (earlier) when I felt there was tension there," said Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani, who also holds the foreign portfolio. "We hold all factions in Lebanon in esteem," the Prime Minister stressed.
Addressing a joint news briefing here last evening with his US counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Premier said that Qatar was supporting the Saudi-Syrian initiative to find a just solution to the political imbroglio in Lebanon.
"We don't want Lebanon to slip into further crisis," the PM pointed out, adding that he had also raised the Lebanese issue with his Turkish counterpart who was here on a visit.
The PM earlier chaired a meeting of GCC foreign ministers with Clinton, where bilateral issues (between GCC and Washington), the crisis brewing in Beirut and the Middle East peace process came up for threadbare discussion.
Clinton described Qatar as a friendly country which the "US trusted immensely" and lauded Doha's initiative to bring peace to Sudan's Darfur region.
"We are working on the issue together," she said of Washington and Doha's joint efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis.
The PM said Clinton earlier met the Emir, H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and both the leaders discussed the Lebanese crisis, regional peace process and issues related to bilateral (Doha-Washington) relations.
Clinton told reporters that Lebanon's coalition crisis was a transparent attempt to subvert justice, but vowed that the work of a UN-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of former (Lebanese) Premier, Rafiq Al Hariri, would go on.
She said that at her meeting with GCC foreign ministers the Iranian nuclear issue was also discussed and it was agreed that Tehran must abide by guidelines resulting from the upcoming Istanbul meet of UN Security Council's permanent members plus Germany.
The US Secretary of State was here to attend the '7th Forum for the Future of the G-8 and Broader Middle East and North Africa region' which concludes here today.
© The Peninsula 2011
