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DOHA : Lebanon's bickering political leaders on Saturday began Arab-brokered crisis talks in Qatar in a bid to end a long-running feud that drove their country to the brink of a new civil war.
After 65 people were killed in nearly a week of fighting, the US-backed Beirut government and the Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Syria and Iran agreed to a national dialogue aimed at electing a president and forming a unity government.
The talks officially started on Friday evening with a brief opening session chaired by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani who stressed the need to preserve Lebanon's unity and hoped the rivals would reach an agreement.
He then adjourned the meeting until the first round of substantive talks on Saturday.
Qatari mediation reportedly continued overnight with the emir shuttling between rival parties, according to the Lebanese pro-government newspaper An-Nahar.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament majority leader Saad Hariri flew to Qatar on a private plane on Friday.
Christian leader Samir Geagea, former president Amin Gemayel and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt of the ruling coalition arrived separately on a Qatari aircraft that also brought opposition member and parliament speaker Nabih Berri and his ally Christian leader Michel Aoun.
The head of the militant Shiite Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah is not in Qatar, reportedly because of security concerns, and is represented by Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad.
Berri and Jumblatt met during the flight, but the Hezbollah delegation did not mix with the pro-government delegations, the pro-opposition Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.
An-Nahar said that in addition to seeking agreement on a unity government and a new electoral law for legislative elections due next year, the Doha talks are also expected to address the question of weapons.
Hezbollah was the only Lebanese group which did not have to hand over its guns to the government following a national reconciliation reached in the Saudi-brokered Taef agreement in 1989, because it was fighting the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.
"We will no longer accept the presence of Hezbollah as it is," Geagea told Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel, saying that relations between Hezbollah and the government should be regulated.
"Without such regulation we cannot reach anything (agreement). This is the main problem," he said.
The feuding politicians agreed on Thursday to launch a dialogue as part of a six-point plan, following Arab League mediation led by Qatari Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani.
Under the deal the rivals undertook "to shore up the authority of the Lebanese state throughout the country," to refrain from using weapons to further political aims and to remove militants from the streets.
In the biggest challenge yet to Siniora, fighters from the opposition took over swathes of west Beirut last week in the worst sectarian violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Siniora had been due to meet US President George W. Bush on Saturday in Egypt, but that meeting has been called off, according to Bush's weekly agenda.
Hopes of a Lebanon deal rose on Wednesday after Siniora's government cancelled measures against Hezbollah that had triggered the unrest.
It rescinded plans to probe a private Hezbollah telecommunications network and reassign the head of airport security over allegations he was close to the group, moves Nasrallah branded a declaration of war.
Parliament in Beirut is due to convene on June 10 for a 20th attempt to elect a president. Damascus protege Emile Lahoud stepped down at the end of his term in November, exacerbating a crisis that began in late 2006 when six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet.
Both sides agree on army chief Michel Sleiman as Lahoud's successor, but they remain at odds over details of the proposed unity government and new electoral law.
- AFP/ms
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