Opposition to meet Amal-Hezbollah MPs Friday

Opposition lawmakers will meet Friday with Amal and Hezbollah MPs, as they resume an initiative they had started last week, aiming to facilitate the election of a president.

Local newspaper al-Joumhouria and Lebanese Forces MP George Okais said the meeting will take place Friday, after Shiite Muslims end the commemoration of Ashura.

The expected meeting between the Shiite Duo and the opposition comes as a surprise after Speaker Nabih Berri and his camp dismissed the opposition's initiative and after LF leader Samir Geagea's repeated rejections of a dialogue with Hezbollah.

Both parties -- Amal-Hezbollah and the opposition -- accuse each other of refusing dialogue and of obstructing the presidential election.

In a bid to break the impasse, opposition lawmakers started their initiative last week, announcing two suggestions to facilitate the election of a president. They met with lawmakers from the Democratic Gathering bloc, the National Moderation bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement's Strong Lebanon bloc and other change and independent MPs.

Amal MP Qassem Hashem criticized the opposition's initiative, saying that "the shortest way to elect a president is Berri's initiative," and that "everything else is a waste of time," while MPs of the PSP, the FPM and the Moderation Bloc reportedly advised the opposition to communicate with Berri.