Lebanon opposition boycotts dialogue

Lebanese opposition boycotts a session of national dialogue, protesting delays in talks on the emergence of false witnesses in former Premier Rafiq Hariri’s assassination case.

National dialogue, first held in September 2008, aims to rally support for a common defense strategy.

A meeting on Wednesday between the Lebanese ministers planned to address the alleged testimonies, which reportedly misled a United Nations tribunal investigating the murder.

The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), Marada Movement, Lebanese Democratic Party and Syrian Social Nationalist Party, however, said the leadership had deliberately postponed the discussion, Lebanese portal Naharnet reported on Thursday.

Hariri was killed along with more than 20 other people in a massive bombing in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on February 14, 2005.

The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by the world body and the Lebanese government in May 2007 to probe the incident.

Referring to the alleged perjury and the meeting, FPM’s leader Michel Aoun had earlier warned that “the crisis is highly problematic and unless they remove the causes of discord, they’d better not [engage] in talks.”

“If the other [political] camp did not refer the false witnesses’ issue to the Judicial Council, this means they are involved in the false witnesses’ issue,” he said.

The opposition parties said their boycott was a “direct message” to President Michel Sleiman and the victim’s son, incumbent Premier Saad Hariri, whom they held responsible for the postponement.