NABATIEH, Lebanon: Speaker Nabih Berri Sunday launched a call for dialogue bringing together Prime Minister Tammam Salam and heads of parliamentary blocs in a bid to end the presidential deadlock and address other aspects of the political crisis.

Berri’s call was swiftly welcomed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party and the Marada Movement of Sleiman Frangieh, while other political parties responded positively but said they would make their final positions clear this week.

“I will call before Sept. 10 for dialogue involving heads of parliamentary blocs besides the prime minister,” Berri said.

The Amal Movement leader said the all-inclusive dialogue would be similar to the talks he hosted in Parliament in 2006, but with a different agenda.

The speaker said that the dialogue would discuss means to end the presidential vacuum, resuming Parliament and Cabinet’s work, a new election law, a law allowing foreigners of Lebanese origin to get Lebanese nationality, administrative decentralization and means to support the Army and the Internal Security Forces.

“It is a humble attempt to achieve consensus. ... I hope that my call will receive positive answers and will be considered a call to help this nation,” Berri said.

The last National Dialogue session which brought together rival leaders was chaired by President Michel Sleiman in May 2014.

Berri made his remarks in Nabatieh, addressing thousands of Amal supporters who gathered to mark the 37th anniversary of the disappearance of Amal founder and influential Lebanese figure Imam Musa al-Sadr and his two companions Sheikh Mohammad Yaacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine.

Hariri said that the Future Movement would respond positively to Berri’s call for the all-inclusive talks.

“We support Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for a dialogue to discuss the items he mentioned in his speech. We will of course deal positively with the issue of dialogue once we receive the invitation,” Hariri tweeted.

The Future Movement leader said an agreement on ending the presidential deadlock was the right way to address other problems.

“The announcement [by Berri] that the Cabinet should be preserved and Parliament’s work reactivated are two cornerstones for stability, which is required at this phase,” Hariri said.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, from the PSP, said Berri’s initiative represented “a glimmer of hope to resolve disputes.”

He said that during a meeting, Jumblatt had informed Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a political aide to Berri, of his full support for Berri’s initiative.

MP Stephan Doueihy, from the Marada Movement, said that Berri’s initiative would protect Lebanon.

“The Lebanese have only dialogue to confront dangers,” he said.

MP Nabil Nicholas, from Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, said that the group would issue a statement in the coming two days announcing its stance on Berri’s initiative.

Speaking to a local television station, Nicholas said that the planned dialogue would be successful if the March 14 coalition intended to address the items specified by Berri.

For his part, Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi, from the Kataeb Party, said that his group’s final stance on Berri’s call for dialogue would be announced after the weekly meeting of the Kataeb politburo Monday.

“All that comes from Speaker Berri is good,” Azzi said.

Commenting on anti-government protests which Beirut has been witnessing over the past weeks, Berri said the demonstrators’ decision to take to streets was right.

But he said that the main problem lied in sectarianism and deprivation, saying that the former was the cause of the latter.

“No reform is possible as long as sectarianism exists,” Berri said.

Heeding the call of the “You Stink” campaign, tens of thousands of protesters took to streets in Downtown Beirut Saturday, demanding the resignation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk over his failure to address a mounting garbage crisis which began last month. They also called for a sustainable solution for the garbage crisis and for parliamentary elections, among other demands.

Berri called on the protesters to replace their demands with calls for the establishment of a civil state and an election law based on proportional representation. He reiterated his support for Salam’s government and called for reactivating its work so that it could address the rightful demands of the people.

“We consider the survival of the Cabinet a national necessity that all parties should be aware of,” Berri said.

The speaker devoted part of his speech to the latest developments in Sadr’s case. Sadr, Yaacoub and Badreddine went missing on Aug. 31, 1978, during an official visit to Libya at the invitation of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Lebanon holds the slain Libyan leader’s regime responsible for Sadr’s disappearance.

Lebanese officials have complained that new Libyan authorities were not cooperating to reveal the fate of Sadr and his two companions.

Berri said that Libyan authorities have recently formed a judicial follow-up committee as part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Lebanon and Libya in spring 2014, under which the latter promised further cooperation to resolve the case of the missing imam.

The speaker said that the Libyan judicial committee had made secret visits and held meetings in Lebanon, Libya and other states. During these meetings, an agreement was reached on taking a number of steps that are being implemented at a slow pace due to the ongoing unrest in Libya, Berri said.

A number of “important steps” are also being coordinated between Sadr’s family and a follow-up committee formed by Lebanon, Berri said. “We will announce them once they are finalized.”