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2005-12-17 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Shiite bloc monkeywrenching Leb government
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 The government's crisis continued Friday, with the bloc of Shiite Ministers maintaining their boycott of Cabinet sessions, despite efforts made by top government officials to mend the situation, including a visit by Premier Fouad Siniora to Speaker Nabih Berri. Following their late night meeting, Siniora emerged to tell reporters the problem with the Shiite bloc in Cabinet was "on its way to being solved."
The Shiite ministers had boycotted the government since Monday over calls for an international probe into assassinations of anti-Syrian figures in the country, and did not attend Thursday's Cabinet session. "I am optimistic about the dialogue we are holding and it is still going on, and I believe all the Lebanese wants us to reach some sort of an agreement" Siniora said.
The premier added that his talks with Hizbullah and its Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah were also ongoing. Hizbullah's Nabatieh MP Mohammad Raad said during a ceremony held by the party in the southern city of Sidon that the only way the party will end its boycott is if the government returns to applying the national consensus formula, which bans taking decisions on critical national matters on the basis of majority and minority. "The decision that was taken in the name of the majority was a huge mistake, and this mistake should be corrected," Raad said. He added: "If our presence or absence from the Cabinet is the same, then what is the need for our attendance?" Raad also slammed the political majority in Lebanon as a dictatorship. "This is not a ruling majority, this is a dictatorship that is imposing its hegemony over the country," he said.
In his turn, Amal Movement MP Ali Khreis asserted that the alliance between the country's two main Shiite powers, Hizbullah and Amal, was solid and ongoing. "The relation with our brothers in Hizbullah is not a circumstantial or a sectarian alliance, it is the base for a vast national alliance," he said.
The sect also did not appear very impressed with an apparent attempt by the Cabinet on Thursday to woo the boycotting Shiite ministers, through its decision to file a complaint against repetitive Israeli breaches to Lebanese sovereignty, and to speed up an investigation into missing Shiite spiritual leader Imam Moussa Sadr, who disappeared 27 years ago during a visit to Libya. A spokesman for Hizbullah said Friday: "These are not rewards. This is not how you do business in the country and certainly not the way to deal with Hizbullah." 
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Posted by Fred 2005-12-17 00:00||
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Posted by Super Hose 2005-12-17 13:39||
2005-12-17 13:39||
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