Color Daily Middle East: Lebanon Holds National Reconciliation Talks
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"With tight lips, as if being forced by the President of the United States, Binyamin Netanyahu succeeded in saying that if and when and maybe and perhaps, he would be willing for there to be something obvious, something that Israel signed on to long ago and that he himself adopted 13 years ago.” - Ofer Shelah, writing in Maariv
9.16.2008

Lebanon Holds National Reconciliation Talks

Lebanon's top political leaders are meeting at the presidential palace in a bid to reach a national reconciliation pact among feuding factions. Attempts to get the pro-Iranian Hezbollah to disarm, however, are threatening to derail the talks.
Fourteen of Lebanon's top political leaders have been meeting at the country's presidential palace, overlooking Beirut, amid tight security, in a bid to resolve months of bickering and political paralysis. President Michel Suleiman, who was elected in May following a political agreement in Qatar, is heading up the talks. President Suleiman began the round-table meeting with a plea to rival politicians to come up with an agreement for the sake of the country.
Mr. Suleiman says that in agreeing to these talks the leaders agree that no matters are off-limits, but that all issues are open to discussion and agreement. He said the one thing that is forbidden, however, is failure or stalemate.
The main topic of debate, and principal subject of discord, is what to do about Hezbollah's military arsenal, amid demands from Lebanon's pro-Western "March 14th alliance" that the group disarm. But Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, is insisting that its military wing be made part of Lebanon's official national defense strategy.
Lebanon's first reconciliation talks in June 2006 ended without agreement, and were followed by a bloody summer war between Israel and Hezbollah. A second attempt at reconciliation in May of this year brought an end to 18 months of political feuding with the election of President Suleiman and the formation of a national unity government. Al-Jazeera Television reports that Hezbollah is asking to enlarge the talks to include more participants, while Saad Hariri, parliamentary leader of the March 14th Alliance, is calling the maneuver a tactic to allow Hezbollah to legitimize its armed presence.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is not attending the talks, due to security reasons, and his party's parliamentary chief, Mohammed Raad, is taking his place. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa is also attending.
No deadline has been set on when the reconciliation talks will end. Another session is to be held October 5.
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Israeli truce negotiator attacks Israel's leaders

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"I don’t understand what it is that they’re trying to do. To insult the Egyptians? We’ve already insulted them.
It’s madness. It’s simply madness.
Egypt has remained almost our last ally here. For what? After all, it’s damaging to national security. Our very essence here is a choice between bad alternatives to worse ones and even worse ones.
The Egyptians have shown extraordinary courage. They’ve given us maneuvering room, they’re trying to mediate, they’re investing efforts, they’re showing goodwill of a kind they’ve never shown before. So it’s true that on the ground that comes out as 60% and not 100%... So what are we going to do?
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What are we thinking? That they work for us? That they’re a subordinate unit of ours?
We’re talking about a country with 85 million citizens, a country that almost destroyed us in 1948 and dealt us a blow in 1973.
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