The speaker of the Lebanese parliament yesterday suspended a national dialogue of rival politicians after one of the main Christian parties walked out, deepening the country’s political crisis.
Speaker Nabih Berri took the decision after the withdrawal of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) which criticised the dialogue as pointless and condemned what it called contraventions of a national pact on sectarian power-sharing among the Lebanese.
“There is no benefit from the dialogue and its continuation, therefore we announced this position in cabinet, and we announced it now at the dialogue table,” FPM leader Gebran Bassil said in a statement reported by the National News Agency.
Lebanon has been paralysed by a political crisis exacerbated by the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
The country has been without a president for more than two years because rival groups have been unable to agree on who it should be, and Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s unity cabinet has been paralysed by divisions among its members.