Lebanese president calls on local leaders to seek fruitful dialogue

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday called on local leaders to sit at the table of national dialogue and disregard forecast and influence of regional events. Suleiman, during a ceremony marking Golden Jubilee of the Institute of Judicial Studies, said impact of the Syrian crisis on the country, namely huge inflow of refugees which has aggravated economic and social problems, could only be tackled by holding to the national unity and abiding by the 2012 "Baabda Declaration." Lebanese must abstain from engaging in any irrational act and work together to seek solutions and save the people from divisions, said Suleiman, clearly hinting that the local leaders should seek local political settlements without consideration to the developments on the neighboring Syrian arena. He urged the judiciary to ignore political concerns in ruling and urged for stiff action against criminals and law offenders, stressing necessity to punish culprits of recent deadly blasts that occurred in northern city of Tripoli and southern Beirut. Lebanese leaders, in June 2012, agreed on adopting a neutral policy toward regional crises, namely Syria, at a dialogue conference, held at the Presidential Palace in the district of Baabda, southeast of Beirut. The former premier, Najib Mikati, had stepped down and was succeeded by Tammam Salam. Salam has retained caretaker capacity due to the local leaders' failure to reach a consensus on a cabinet line-up, in addition to various other disputes regarding local and regional issues, namely Syria