Suleiman Postpones National Dialogue without Setting Date for New Round of Talks

President Michel Suleiman officially postponed on Saturday a national dialogue session set to take place at the Baabda Palace.

According to a statement issued by the presidential palace, Suleiman informed all-party talks participants the postponement of Monday's session without setting a new date.

The decision came following a meeting the president held on Friday night with Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat.

A terse Baabda palace statement said late Friday that Suleiman discussed with Miqati and Jumblat the latest developments including “the dialogue, the electoral law and the reconciliation in the Mountains, mainly in the town of Brih.”

The two centrist leaders later stayed for dinner at the presidential palace, the statement said.

Earlier, As Safir and An Nahar newspaper expected that Suleiman would announce the postponement of the session, saying that he will most probably not set a date for a new round of all-party talks pending the decision of March 14 opposition officials to return to the dialogue table.

The opposition announced its boycott of the national dialogue and called for the resignation of Miqati's government following the Oct. 19 assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan after it blamed the cabinet for the murder.

Last month, the leader of the opposition al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, Fouad Saniora, set a new condition to attend the talks, saying Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah should declare that he is ready to discuss placing the party’s arsenal under the authority of the Lebanese state.

The new condition further exacerbated already slim chances to hold the dialogue and led to a verbal dispute with Suleiman who said he will not abandon his invitation until the meeting is convened or the March 14 alliance proposes an alternative.

But the opposition reiterated its call for the cabinet's resignation and the formation of a new government that would oversee the parliamentary elections.

Media reports said the controversial electoral draft-law was discussed in length at the Friday night meeting in Baabda.

Sources said that Miqati proposed to combine the proportional and winner-takes-all systems in a way to appease both the March 14 and March 8 camps in addition to the centrists.

They told al-Akhbar that the premier believes an amended version of the Butros Committee proposal is the only way out of the electoral crisis.

This proposal guarantees the formation of a balancing centrist bloc, they added.