Erdoğan had already held talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri as well as with President Michel Suleiman and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. As of Thursday night, Erdoğan held separate talks respectively with Sunni leader Najib Mikati; former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora; Phalange leader and former President Amine Gemayel; Lebanese Forces Party (LF) leader Samir Geagea; Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun; head of Hezbullah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammad Raad; and Druze leader and head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt, the Anatolia news agency reported.
“There is willingness [by Turkey] to play a certain role and contribute to Arab and international efforts to bring Lebanon out of its crisis,” Gemayel was quoted as saying by the Lebanese newspaper Nahar following his meeting with Erdoğan. The Turkish prime minister “asked precise questions about possible solutions to controversial issues and initiatives that could push the Lebanese towards dialogue,” Gemayel also told the newspaper.
Tensions have been increasing over the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, tasked with investigating the murder of the current prime minister’s father, a Sunni Muslim. The Netherlands-based tribunal is reportedly poised to indict high-ranking members of Lebanon’s Shiite militant movement, Hezbullah, in connection with the Feb. 14, 2005, bombing which killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut. Hezbullah has launched an increasingly heated campaign against the tribunal and has called for a government vote on a local inquiry into what it alleges was false testimony that misled investigators.
Earlier during his visit, at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Hariri, Erdoğan had admitted that Turkey has been exerting efforts along with Syria and Saudi Arabia to overcome a government deadlock over alleged false testimonies in a UN-backed investigation into the assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. Saudi-Syrian contacts to resolve the crisis in Lebanon have encountered an interruption due to the health problems of Saudi King Abdullah, Erdoğan said in response to a question at the press conference. Extending his get-well wishes to the Saudi king, Erdoğan added: “We are trying to exert necessary efforts. I have talked to the Syrian president [Bashar Assad] before my visit. We want to build confidence between Lebanon and Syria.”
Erdoğan declined to give an exact answer when asked whether he was carrying a message from Assad to Hariri; however, the prime minister noted that he would again be in contact with Assad following his meetings with Lebanese government officials and politicians.
During the visit, Erdoğan called for Lebanese unity, saying there should be “common ground” among rival Lebanese factions and various sects in order to protect Lebanon against the threat of strife. “Whenever the Lebanese take steps in the development field, there is intervention to obstruct this development. We must not allow such intervention. We have to maintain our unity. We have to be strong, too. With this, we can take Lebanon, God willing, to the future in a strong manner,” he said.
