After the Quintet Committee effectively removed the presidential election file from the French initiative and placed it under the Qatari initiative during their last meeting in New York, a notable change occurred yesterday in the stance of the Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, who is known for his famous dialogue and presidential initiative. This change was evident in an interview he conducted with "Nidaa Al-Watan," where he acknowledged the extent of Christian opposition to his initiative and admitted that he initially relied on Christian acceptance.
When asked about the fate of the dialogue following the "Quintet" meeting, he responded: "We were waiting for the Quintet's statement regarding the gathered committee, but the countries disagreed among themselves, so we need to reconcile them a bit."
Regarding his dialogue initiative, he stated: "There is no progress yet. My initiative has been accepted by everyone, but those I wanted to agree to it rejected it, namely the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement. We saw the burden that Bassil placed in his recent speech, and 'whoever does not want to marry off his daughter raises her dowry.'"
On the rumors about a Qatari initiative, Berri confirmed: "It is true that there is a Qatari initiative, and the Qatari envoy has arrived in Lebanon, but there has been no communication with me yet."
Regarding the fate of the presidency and dialogue in this atmosphere, Berri summarized his response by saying: "It seems the nearby church does not heal."
In a related context, "Al-Manar" TV, affiliated with Hezbollah, reported last night that the Qatari envoy, Abu Fahd Jassim Al-Thani, who arrived in Beirut last Tuesday, has begun actual meetings with political forces and presidential candidates to agree on a single name.
Despite the development that led to the transfer of the file from the hands of the presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian to the Qatari envoy, "Nidaa Al-Watan" learned from diplomatic sources that the "Lebanese file was withdrawn from the diplomatic cell at the Élysée Palace to be fully handled by Minister Le Drian," who will continue to represent his country in following up on this file. It is worth mentioning that the Élysée cell that was monitoring the Lebanese file included former ambassador Emmanuel Bonne, Director of External Intelligence Bernard Émié, French President's advisor for the Near East Patrick Durel, in addition to officials from the Foreign Ministry.
