BEIRUT: The first session of the long-awaited dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah will kick off Tuesday at Speaker Nabih Berri’s residence, a Hezbollah source said.
Speaking to The Daily Star Monday, the source said that representing Hezbollah in the talks would be Hussein Khalil, a political aide to Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan and MP Hasan Fadlallah.
Nader Hariri, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s chief of staff, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk and MP Samir Jisr would attend on behalf of the Future Movement.
Berri, who has been preparing for the talks over the past couple of months, will host the first dialogue session at his residence in the Ain al-Tineh neighborhood of Beirut.
The main goals of the dialogue between the arch-foes will be to reduce Sunni-Shiite tension, pave the way for ending the seven-month-long presidential vacuum and to boost efforts to combat the rising threat of terrorism.
Sunni-Shiite divisions have been on the rise in Lebanon over the past decade, particularly following the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
But tensions between the sects in Lebanon were exacerbated with the outbreak of the war in neighboring Syria in March 2011.
The Future Movement backs the Syrian opposition while Hezbollah supports Syrian President Bashar Assad and has deployed thousands of its troops to fight alongside the Syrian army.
Lebanon has witnessed a spillover of Syria’s violence over the past years, with a spate of bombings in areas seen as sympathetic towards Hezbollah last year and earlier this year.
The bombings were claimed by radical Syrian rebel groups, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, which say the attacks are a response to Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria.
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