Lebanon's Christian reconciliation remains up in the air

As Lebanon's president and prime minister headed Wednesday to Rome and Cairo respectively, the country's leading politicians remained focused on Christian reconciliation efforts and the upcoming parliamentary elections, which will draw the country's political map for the next four years.

President Michel Sleiman left for Rome on Wednesday, accompanied by a delegation that included Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, Defense Minister Elias Murr and ministers of state Khaled Qabbani and Youssef Taqla. Sleiman is expected to meet on Thursday with his Italian counterpart, Giorgio Napolitano, and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. On Friday, Sleiman is scheduled to meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. He is also to meet with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir.

Sources quoted by the Central News Agency said on Wednesday that Sleiman's meeting with the patriarch would focus on launching a new initiative to achieve reconciliation among rival Christians.

The sources added that Sleiman would use the upcoming national dialogue session to try to promote reconciliation efforts among all factions.

As Sleiman began his visit to Rome, Egyptian and Lebanese officials began official talks on Wednesday in Cairo. The visiting Lebanese delegation is headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and includes Education Minister Bahia Hariri, Economy and Trade Minister Mohammad Safadi, Energy and Water Resources Minister Alain Tabourian, Culture Minister Tammam Salam, Tourism Minister Elie Marouni and Minister of State Ibrahim Chamseddine. Three educational agreements were signed during the first meeting on Wednesday and additional agreements are expected to be signed on Thursday.

Siniora also met with a delegation of Lebanese and Egyptian businessmen.

Separately, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Wednesday that he would run in the 2009 elections in Kesrouan-Jbeil and not in Baabda in order to put an end to criticism that he would win the latter district thanks to the Shiite vote.

In an interview with Kuwait's Al-Anbaa newspaper, Aoun acknowledged that "running in Kesrouan is a big challenge to me." However, he added that "All prospects are possible in the elections."

Aoun said that his popularity among Christians had not decreased to less than 51 percent, according to opinion polls. He added that he would be able secure 70 percent of the Christian vote based on his "future alliances."

Concerning efforts to achieve inter-Christian reconciliation, Aoun said: "The doors of reconciliation have not been closed, because they were not open in the first place."

Aoun added that apologies are useless when the people to whom they are addressed are not identified by name. Aoun was referring to remarks made by Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea, who has apologized for any "mistakes" that the LF may have committed during the Civil War. The LF boss has stopped short of apologizing directly to Marada Movement leader and former Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh, whose father, mother and sister were killed by Geagea's militia in a 1978 raid on the family's home in Ehden. Geagea claims that he was shot before he arrived at the scene of the killings.

Aoun added that the best means for reconciliation was through the judiciary.

Meanwhile, Franjieh said the public should not dwell extensively upon reconciliation efforts, "because they will happen at the right time when conditions mature."

Franjieh met on Wednesday with the Maronite League president, Joseph Tarabay, who has been mediating between the Marada and the Lebanese Forces in a bid to reach a reconciliation agreement between the two long-time rivals.

"The reconciliation issue should be discussed calmly, because if discussions around it are hurried, its damage will be greater than its benefits," Franjieh said after the meeting. He added that he and Tarabay agreed on the need to ease tensions in the media and avoid political bickering through media outlets.

"The reconciliation is not a ball that we throw in someone else's court; it is a fundamental issue, as innocent blood was shed during a period of the history and the Christians were divided," Franjieh added.

However, the Marada leader added that his party was willing to continue talks with the Maronite League and said he hoped that the media would deal objectively with the matter.

Asked about the conditions that his party has put forward to agree on reconciliation with the LF, Franjieh said: "We have said it before and the League knows that our conditions are not very difficult to meet."

He added: "This issue should be permanently closed as it will not remain a trade product used by some parties in the media."

Tarabay, for his part, said the Maronite League was willing to continue its efforts until the reconciliation is achieved.

Franjieh also met on Wednesday with the UN secretary general's representative in Lebanon, Michael Williams.

Although inter-Christian reconciliation efforts appeared to be making little progress, Speaker Nabih Berri said on Wednesday that the country was going through a positive period in view of successful reconciliation initiatives. "Despite the Lebanese internal mosaic, there are positive developments prevailing over the country," he said, citing the meeting between Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri and Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah over the weekend.

Berri added that Egypt's ongoing cooperation served to encourage reconciliation among rival Lebanese factions.

The speaker met Wednesday with MP Butros Harb, with whom he discussed the latest developments. In remarks afterward, Harb said: "We have discussed the latest reconciliation efforts which yielded positively in the political arena and we hope that these reconciliations would be achieved between all the disputing parties, especially that the upcoming parliamentary elections require a calm atmosphere."

For his part, Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said he did not expect that inter-Christian reconciliation would be achieved.

In comments to As-Sayyad magazine to be published Thursday, Najjar said: "I do not see that reconciliation is possible between General Michel Aoun and the Lebanese Forces [or between] Minister Suleiman Franjieh and the LF."

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc welcomed the talks between Nasrallah and Hariri over the weekend, saying the meeting had eased tensions in Lebanon and in the wider Arab and Islamic worlds.

The statement also stressed the bloc's adherence to the outcome of the Nasrallah-Hariri meeting and urged "all the Lebanese to cooperate" to achieve national reconciliation.

Meanwhile, former President Amin Gemayel said he hoped all Lebanese parties would follow the example of Hariri and Nasrallah.

In comments following his meeting on Wednesday with Russian Ambassador Serguei Boukin, Gemayel said: "There is a determination to push the reconciliation forward. The meeting between parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah should widen the framework of reconciliations."

"We support all efforts in this regard and we ask President Michel Sleiman and Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir to make further efforts to achieve inter-Christian reconciliation as soon as possible," he added source>>>

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