Lebanese leaders yesterday adjourned the latest round of reconciliation talks, still unable to find a consensus on the future of embattled pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. The leaders, following nearly four hours of round-table talks at Parliament house amid tight security measures, set the next round of negotiations for June 8 to continue discussions on the arms of the Hezbollah resistance group. “Participants did not reach an agreement on the presidency, so they moved on to the remaining item on the table: the strategic defense policy” against potential Israeli dangers on Lebanon, said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Berri told reporters that the next round of talks will take place on June 8 “because some colleagues have trips abroad and there are some holidays.”Lahoud’s fate has been a key sticking point at the round-table talks, with the Damascus protege at loggerheads with the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority that considers him a continuation of Syrian domination. “When we fail in a subject, we said that we would come out and say it. We are not ashamed of it,” said Berri, referring to the discussions on the fate of Lahoud, who still has a year and a half in office.
The seventh round of talks was taking place amid global pressure on Damascus to stop interfering in its smaller neighborÂ’s internal affairs. Lebanon has been in political turmoil since the February 2005 murder of five-time Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an attack widely blamed on Syria which was later forced to withdraw troops after 29 years on Lebanese soil.