Nasrallah & Berri: Using the international court as a pretext does not serve truth and justice…We will be obliged to use

Nasrallah & Berri: Using the international court as a pretext does not serve truth and justice...We will be obliged to use all democratic means if the other side continues disregarding for the foundations of Lebanese national agreement
Source Moqawama.org, 24-11-2006
The Secretary General of Hizbullah, his Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and head of "Amal Movement" Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, together with both parties' respective parliamentary blocs issued a joint statement to all Lebanese, it said the following:
"Dear Lebanese people, after much debate in recent times about the position on the court of international nature, and the attempts exercised by some to exploit it to pass their political stands, it has become necessary to present you with the picture on its truth, starting from our patriotic and political constants, and our principles based in the values of justice and truth."
"Since the occurrence of the heinous crime that struck Lebanon by the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his companions, Amal Movement and Hizbullah confirmed and declared their insistence on uncovering the truth in this crime and to identify the instigators, planners, perpetrators and punish them, as this issue is a national priority that should be attained."
"As we renew our commitment, everyday, to accomplish all the premises which provide for a court of international nature, the assassination of the Parliament Member martyr Gibran Tueni occurred. Then, the subject of the demand to broaden the investigation and the establishment of an International Tribunal had been raised. So, the subject was put as an item on the agenda for the Cabinet's extraordinary session without giving the ministers the opportunity to study and prepare for it, in a way that facilitates passing the bill.
Faced with the Prime Minister`s insistence that day on setting a date for the session, without giving Amal and Hizbullah ministers time to prepare and debate the topic. It was even two days would have been sufficient to achieve the goal without the Ministers having to resort to suspending their participation in government as a result of the PM ignoring their role in the process of preparation, participation and decision-making."
Because the leaderships in the two parties are dedicated to the court and the truth, they have continued to confirm their position of support for it, at every opportunity in the leading up to the national dialogue on March 2, 2006, which was convened by Speaker Nabih Berri, who made the first item on its agenda ‘the uncovering of the truth behind the assassination crime of the Martyr Prime Minister Hariri and its off-shoots'.
Furthermore, both parties maintained the same position of support to the truth in the matter, by clearly confirming, and from the first meeting of the national dialogue, their support for the formation of an international tribunal. As a result, an agreement was reached on this item in the first hour of the conference, with unanimous support of the attendees, who testified to Speaker Berri and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for their forward position in this regard. Details are documented in the recordings of the Conference minutes."
"Because they insist on disallowing the falsification of their positions on the Court issue, both Amal and Hizbullah leaderships took every opportunity in all central events, during the period between the national dialogue and consultation sessions, through Speaker Berri and Nasrallah to confirm their decisive stance on this issue.
This was occurring at a time when the parliamentary ‘majority' and for political reasons, tried to cover some of its crisis by deceiving public opinion that any political expression or stance toward the government or its performance stems from a background of rejecting the court. Hence, this resulted in distorting the facts on political issues linked to the Israeli war on Lebanon, the economy, and social and financial crisis, in a manner that lead to quarrels that weakened the image of unanimity on the disclosure of the truth.
This has not served the court project, but created a state of public confusion despite the repetition by both movement and party for their position in this regard. "
"Dear Lebanese people, in view of the developments that dominated the Lebanese arena after the Israeli war on Lebanon, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri took the initiative to call for a consultation gathering, which included the conferees of the parties in dialogue on the issues of forming a government of national unity, a new election law and the preparation for the coming economic and financial responsibilities."
"Since we were keen to remind all concerned of our positive position on the court, the consultation gathering was an opportunity to broaden the debate in the direction of reassuring the position towards it.
After the topic took a fair share of the conferees' discussions, both leaderships of Amal Movement and Hizbullah party reiterated their known positions on this issue, in a frank and clear manner during both the 1st and 2nd sessions of consultations, until arriving at the private meeting held on the sidelines of the third session.
During this side meeting held by both Speaker Berri and MP Ali Hassan Khalil on the one hand, and MP Mohammad Raad, Minister Mohammed Fneish, MP Hussein Al-Hajj Hassan on the other hand, MP Hariri entered and presented a formula, based on agreeing to the principle of establishing a court of international nature, and to subsequently discuss its details in side meetings that include the three parties, in a manner that facilitates and guarantees unanimous approval at the required speed, when presented through the Cabinet.
It was agreed also that this shall happen with a simultaneous approval to the formation of a national unity government, that includes the participation of the opposition by more than one third of the number of ministers. Thus ensuring a genuine participation which acts as a way in to discussing and solving the controversial issues."
"The consultation session was adjourned after this gathering. And because we are keen to resolve and accomplish the court issue, we took initiatives in making calls on more than one occasion to speed up the process of receiving the court draft, to put what we agreed on in place for implementation.
This did not happen until ten o'clock of Friday evening, the night before the last consultation meeting. Then, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora contacted Speaker Nabih Berri, confirming that no date was to be set for a Cabinet meeting in this regard before the gathering on Saturday i.e. before the implementation steps of what was agreed upon in the private meeting with MP Saad Hariri, and in order to facilitate the adoption of the draft after the Ministers and the relevant Commission will have had time to study its details.
However, we were surprised at the opening of the session on the following day-Saturday 11-11-2006- by a campaign that focused on presenting us as if we are trading-off between the Court and political demands, ignoring all that took place in the private session, which was initiated by MP Saad Hariri. Also, we were surprised by the fact that a date had been set for the Cabinet to convene on Monday 13-11-2006, without telling any one over the subject and without taking into account all we said on our readiness to discuss the draft and with the highest degree of positivism and openness."
"This was accompanied by their closing the political debate on the agenda's main item, the formation of a national unity government where some pillars of the majority considered this demand non-negotiable."
"Oh people of Lebanon: in view of employing the assassination crime of the MP and Minister of Industry, Martyr Pierre Gemayel, and the continued distortion of our position on the court of international nature, we offer these facts to confirm our decisive position of supporting the establishment of this court in accordance with the mechanisms that maintain the proper constitutional procedures and guarantee the desired outcome.
At the same time, we insist on our legitimate right to demand for genuine political participation. Moreover, we will not submit to any blackmail to abandon our position regarding this participation."
"The other parties' confrontation against our legitimate political demands, using the pretext of the court with international nature to compensate for their weakness and to confuse public opinion, certainly does not serve truth and justice. This will not dissuade us from our commitment to the Lebanese people to continue to demand and use all available democratic, constitutional means according to the observed laws and regulations, which we will have to utilize should the other party persist with intransigence and disregard for the foundations of the Lebanese national accord."
"O Lord! Attest, we have thus conveyed."