March 8 circles told daily An Nahar on Sunday that the speech will address Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt's latest decision to side with Syria and the Resistance in the parliamentary consultations and negotiations with Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri to end the crisis.
In an interview with An Nahar daily Jumblatt said his decision to stand by Syria and Hezbollah in the upcoming parliamentary consultations is based on obvious national and regional factors. He said that the Lebanese will receive the Democratic Gathering's answer during Monday's consultations.
“It is good to hold calm consultations, especially if we respect the constitutional game,” Jumblatt added.
Commenting on his recent meeting with Sayyed Nasrallah, Jumblat said: “The meeting was very excellent and he is the most aware of the dangerousness of the situation in the country.”
This comes at the time reports had been circulating on whether the consultations would be held on Monday and Tuesday or not.
MTV reported Saturday evening that Lebanese speaker Nabih Berri called Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and asked him to reschedule Monday’s scheduled premiership consultations. Hours later, Berri’s press office denied the MTV report, “Speaker Berri did not ask for postponing the consultation and confirms that they will be held as scheduled”.
Al Hayat newspaper reported in its Sunday edition that Jumblatt is strongly in favor of postponing the consultations , while president Suleiman said he has no plans until now to reschedule them unless all parties agree. He reportedly said that “postponing the premiership consultations cannot be justified.”
Diplomatic sources revealed to Al-Mustaqbal daily that Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al Thani contacted Suleiman urging him to reschedule the consultations to “allow more room for reaching a settlement”.
According to LBC the Qatar ruler prefers to name former PM and current MP Najib Miqati as the compromise candidate to lead the next government and this was the purpose of his visit to Damascus, but both March 14 and March 8 rejected the idea.
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