The Lebanese National Dialogue kicked off on Wednesday in capital Beirut, as the second session was set for next Wednesday.
The Lebanese National Dialogue kicked off on Wednesday in capital Beirut, as the second session was set for next Wednesday.
The dialogue session coincided with the call of Prime Minister Tammam Salam for an extraordinary Cabinet session to be held in the afternoon to discuss Lebanon's protracted garbage crisis.
“I called for a Cabinet session at 5:00 p.m. today (Wednesday) to tackle the garbage crisis and find an effective solution for it,” Salam told reporters as he was entering the assembly to take part in the first round of Lebanon’s all-party talks.
Salam called on rival parties to take part in the Cabinet session and “participate in finding an effective solution to the waste crisis.”
The last Cabinet session was held on August 27 amid a boycott by Hezbollah and its main Christian ally the Free Patriotic Movement.
The FPM decision to boycott was in light of a lack of consensus in the Cabinet over the decision-making mechanism.
Speaker Nabih Berri, who called for the dialogue session, was the first to arrive at the Parliament.
The session was attended by: head of the Development and Liberation Parliamentary bloc, Speaker Nabih Berri, accompanied by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, accompanied by Minister Rashid Derbas, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, accompanied by MP Ahmad Karami, head of the Future Movement bloc Fouad Siniora, accompanied by MP Atef Majdalani, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, accompanied by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Deputy Parliament Speaker Farid Makari, accompanied by MP Robert Fadel, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, accompanied by MP Ghazi Aridi, Former deputy premier MP Michel Murr, Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel, accompanied by MP Eli Marouni, Hezbollah's Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc MP Mohammad Raad, accompanied by MP Ali Fayyad, Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh, accompanied by former Minister Youssef Saadeh, Tashnag leader MP Hagop Pakradounian, accompanied by Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian, Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb, accompanied by MP Jawad Boulos, Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan, accompanied by Hassan Hmadah, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaoun, accompanied by Elias Abu Hala, and The Syrian Social Nationalist Party MP Asaad Hardan, accompanied by former minister Ali Kanso.
Only Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea boycotted the session, deeming it "useless."
Parliamentary bloc leaders arrived at Parliament amid tight security measures to prevent demonstrators, who were holding a sit-in near entrances that were blocked with barricades and barbed wires, from coming face to face with the politicians.
Some demonstrators hurled eggs at politician’s convoys as they were heading into the Nejmeh Square where the Parliament is located.
The National Dialogue session aims to end the 15-month presidential vacuum and revive the role of Parliament and the Cabinet.
You Stink and other civil groups began a sit-in to coincide with the dialogue session. A mass demonstration is expected to take place at 6:00 p.m.
