Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri has been exerting efforts to bridge the gap between his two allies, Hezbollah and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), after their ties reached a stage of rivalry.
Hezbollah and its allies have lately escalated their campaign against PSP leader Walid Jumblat after the Druze leader expressed doubts that the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the border with Israel is Lebanese territory, and also rejected that a cement factory in the town of Ain Dara in Aley becomes functional again.
On Sunday, Berri succeeded to hold a coordination meeting at his residence in Ain el-Tineh between representatives from his Amal Movement, Hezbollah and the PSP.
However, the results seem to have not satisfied the speaker, whose sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that there has been “no thaw” in the relations between Hezbollah and the PSP.
“There is a standstill,” the sources said.
"There was a frank discussion and an agreement to continue the talks in a positive spirit," Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who is an Amal official, said following the meeting.
In response to a question on the Shebaa Farms, Khalil asserted that the area “is Lebanese.”
This was clearly emphasized by different Lebanese parties during all-party talks in 2006, he said.
The sources said that during Sunday’s meeting, both sides clarified their viewpoints on controversial issues, including the Shebaa Farms and the factory in Ain Dara.
The meeting was attended by Industry Minister Wael Abou Faour and former Minister Ghazi Aridi from the PSP, and Hezbollah’s Hussein Khalil and Wafiq Safa. Amal’s representatives were the finance minister and Ahmed Baalbaki.
