Berri: Time for peace talks with Israel
Lebanese parliament speaker, a Hizbullah ally, says in interview, 'The time is now right to return to Arab peace initiative which Arabs have agreed on unanimously'; adds Arabs must meet, decide on stance regarding negotiations. Olmert in response: We must listen to him
In an interview with the al-Arabiyah network from Paris, where he is visiting, and which was published in the London-based al-Sharq al-Awasat daily, the Lebanese parliament speaker discussed an series of issues, including the peace process with Israel.
According to Berri, the time now "is very suitable to return to the Arab peace initiative which the Arabs have agreed on unanimously."
It should be mentioned that Nabih is a Shiite and a Hizbullah ally.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert referred Thursday afternoon, during his Moscow visit, to Berri's remarks, and said that "every time an Arab leader talks about peace we must listen to him, and when Berri talks it is also interesting."
The Arab peace initiative, initiated by Saudi King Abdullah, was accepted in the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002. According to the initiative, Israel will withdraw to the 1967 borders, an Palestinian state will be established within these borders, and the refugee problem will be solved, in return for peace and full normalization between Israel and Arab countries.
"The convention was held in Beirut in 2002 and the Arab agreed on this initiative unanimously. (However,) the Israelis and those behind them are rejecting it. Now it is time to raise the issue of returning to peace negotiations. Now is the time which can be very suitable to return to peace negotiations," Berri said.
He went on to say: "How is this possible when the Arabs are so torn? I believe that the only solution for the situation of a rift is that all the Arabs meet and decide together how to utilize this thing."
"These are almost the same things I had the honor of saying during my last meeting with the Saudi officials, headed by the Saudi king," he added.
Hizbullah's political patron
Berri, the parliament speaker (a role kept for Shiites in Lebanon) and the leader of the Shiite Amal movement has not been heard voicing such opinions in the past. Nonetheless, he took advantage of the recent war between Israel and Hizbullah to position himself as a national figure while presented himself as Hizbullah's political patron and its mediator on the issue of prisoner exchange.
Hizbullah paid him back for his political embrace during the war and placed his portrait alongside that of the group's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah at the Dahiya quarter in Beirut during the war.
It should be mentioned that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said several times that Lebanon would be the last country to make peace with Israel, also due to his fear that he would be seen as "collaborating with Israel."
