The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following weekly communiqué:

The fact that we welcome the Dialogue Conference to be convened on the 16th of this month is because it is hosted by the President of the Republic who enjoys the trust of the Lebanese people and represents their last hope amid a political leadership that has excelled in destroying the people’s aspirations and sabotaging the country in all respects. It is a fact that some of those leaders thrive on crises and wager on them to aggrandize themselves, while others exploit them to achieve their own objectives.

But if we want to believe what we hear these days from the dialogue participants, namely that they are determined this time around to reach reasonable and acceptable solutions, then:

First, they must begin where they left off at the previous Dialogue Conference and the Consultative Conference that followed it. In other words, they must move to identify the mechanisms by which to implement the decisions they had agreed on, and not go back to discuss those decisions anew.

Second, they must discuss a defense strategy that includes all the imminent threats to the country, particularly those looming from Syria.

Third, they must discuss shielding Lebanon from the regional conflicts so that it no longer is the open arena for the conflicts of others at the expense of Lebanon’s blood and treasure.

Fourth, more importantly, they must discuss amending the Taef Agreement to the effect of restoring authority to the office of the President so he can carry out the national role he is entrusted with and assume his constitutional powers that grant him the prerogative of settling matters of contention.

On the other hand, if the politicians’ intentions remain what they are, which is to say one thing while secretly harboring other ideas, the dialogue will certainly continue to be a conversation of the deaf and the situation will go from bad to worse until a certain end comes to pass.

Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
September 12, 2008