iloubnan - Hariri: Dialogue starts with illegal weapons and not with attempts to drag the issue of Tribunal issue to table - August 12, 2011

According to a report published by his Press Office on Friday, Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri issued the following statement:

“We do not want to doubt the intentions of His Excellency President Michel Suleiman, and we are the most aware of the truth of these intentions, and of what he said in secret and revealed in public through the inaugural speech.

Nevertheless, honesty compels us to make two observations concerning the recent speech delivered during the Presidential Palace Iftar.

First: Contrary to the opinion of the President, the evolution of events in our Arab environment, and the state of anticipation associated with the course of the Special Tribunal, are not supposed to be a reason of concern for the Lebanese. Rather, most Lebanese find in the Arab popular movement an opportunity to spread democracy in the Arab political life, and end the era of totalitarian and repressive regimes, and find in the progress of the Special Tribunal, a way to protect Lebanon from organized political crime and to achieve justice in its noblest form.

Second: Limiting the function of the national dialogue to agreeing on ways to address the pending controversial issues, brings back dialogue to its starting point, and conceals an invitation to include clauses to the dialogue agenda that were already agreed on, but unfortunately, were not implemented due to the hegemonic policies related to the right of the State to spread its authority over all the Lebanese territories”.

Premier Hariri concluded that “The only way to dialogue, starts with resolving the issue of the illegal weapons and not with the known attempts to drag the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to the dialogue table once again.”