Berri to ask Hezbollah, Future to change rhetoric

BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced that he will call on Hezbollah and the Future Movement to use a less antagonistic tone in addressing disagreements between the two parties.

“We will ask Hezbollah and the Future Movement to express their disagrements in a less tense and calmer way to avoid tensions,” Berri was quoted as saying by visitors, in comments published by Al-Hayat newspaper Sunday.

Berri said the dialogue between the two political rivals, which he sponsors, was launched with the purpose of diffusing the sectarian grudges between Sunni and Shiites communities in Lebanon.

“But the mutual campaigns are increasing this tension instead of reducing it,” he said, emphasizing that the language used in statements and speeches should be “less fierce.”

Despite the ongoing dialogue between the two parties, tensions surged last week after Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah launched a verbal attack against Saudi Arabia in an interview with official Syrian TV channel Al-Ikhbariya.

Future Movement leader Saad Hariri’s then issued a statement condemning Nasrallah’s speech and slamming Iran over its role in Lebanon and Yemen.

A rebuttal then came from MP Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, who criticized Hariri in another aggressive statement.

The recent developments were seen as a possible end to the dialogue, but Berri assured Wednesday that the talks will go on despite the rhetoric.

“The two parties insist on maintaining the dialogue despite the media campaigns,” Berri said Saturday, adding that he will address his request for a softer rhetoric to the two parties in the anticipated dialogue session next Tuesday.

The Speaker also said that he did not discuss Nasrallah’s speech with Saudi Ambassador Ali Abdullah Asiri, who visited last week, and that the discussion was limited to the developments in Lebanon and Yemen.

“Berri bids on Egypt returning to its pioneer role on the Arab level,” the visitors also told Al-Hayat, noting that neither Iran nor Hezbollah had mentioned Egypt in their media campaigns.