Lebanon's parliament speaker calls for political dialogue

Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called for a political dialogue session with the leaders of different parliamentary blocs and the prime minister.

Addressing a religious event, Berri said he would call for the dialogue session within the first ten days of September and it would be limited to the heads of different parliamentary blocs and Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

The session will focus on the presidential void, the work of the Parliament and the Cabinet, a new electoral law, administrative decentralization and equipping the Army.

The last political dialogue session was in May 2014 and chaired by then President Michel Sleiman.

The session is Berri's latest initiative to break the current political deadlock prevailing in the country.

Rival political groups are at loggerheads over several decisive issues including extending the terms of top security chiefs, agreeing upon a decision-making mechanism for the Cabinet, launching new tenders for waste management contracts and electing a new president.

The You Stink protest campaign, ignited by a waste crisis, has widened to reflect anger at the state failure to provide basic services. It is seen as the biggest protest movement in Lebanon's history organized independently of the sectarian parties that have previously dominated politics.

The garbage crisis has exposed wider political deadlock in Lebanon, where sectarian and power rivalries have been intensified by the Syrian conflict next door, more than two decades after Lebanon's own devastating civil war.
Source: MENA