BEIRUT: Rival political leaders, including senior officials from the Future Movement and Hezbollah, will meet Monday in two separate rounds of talks aimed at getting the paralyzed government functioning and defusing sectarian tensions, exacerbated by a new strain in Saudi-Iranian ties. Speaker Nabih Berri will chair a national dialogue session at his Ain al-Tineh residence at noon Monday, to be followed in the evening by a new round of talks between the Future Movement and Hezbollah.

Although the presidential election is the main item on the national dialogue agenda, rival factions had agreed during last month’s talks on the need to reactivate the government, crippled for months by sharp differences among its members.

Berri said Sunday he would gear his efforts during the national dialogue session toward getting the paralyzed government back on track.

“Reservations made by some parties over the convening of a Cabinet session Thursday will be discussed. I will try to deal with them to clear the way for the Cabinet session,” Berri was quoted as saying by visitors.

Berri said the resumption of Hezbollah-Future dialogue as scheduled Monday is an “achievement given the difficult internal and regional circumstances surrounding it, regardless of whether the two sides are able to produce practical political results or not.”

He was referring to the escalating Saudi-Iranian tensions following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shiite preacher, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, on Jan. 2.

Berri said Future and Hezbollah officials will exchange blame after both engaged in a fierce verbal feud sparked by the execution. He added that he expected Monday’s meeting to help in “defusing tension which soared recently as a result of successive developments in the region.”

The two dialogue sessions come as Prime Minister Tammam Salam has called for a Cabinet meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday to discuss some 140 items on the agenda, dealing mainly with socio-economic issues.

The Cabinet last met in late December to approve a controversial plan to export Lebanon’s waste aimed at ending the six-month-long trash crisis, which erupted in mid-July after a notorious landfill southeast of Beirut was closed.

A dispute over the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism in the absence of a president and the Free Patriotic Movement’s demand for the appointment of senior military and security officers have prevented the body from convening for a regular session since Sept. 9. The FPM has also accused Salam of exercising the president’s prerogatives amid the presidential vacuum, a charge denied by the prime minister.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Fneish, one of two ministers representing Hezbollah in the government, said no decision has been made yet on whether his party and the FPM would attend the session.

“We are still consulting with the FPM,” Fneish told The Daily Star.

He signaled his support for the dialogue with the Future Movement. “Dialogue in a country like Lebanon, which enjoys freedom and diversity, is the only possibility to resolve differences. If some wanted to continue with it, they are welcome. But if they do not want, this means that they are backing off and adopting stances against dialogue,” Fneish told a political gathering in the southern village of Shaqra.

Berri reiterated that the presidential election has put in the “freezer” as a result of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which back opposing sides in Lebanon.

However, he said former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s presidential initiative, backing MP Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy for the presidency, is “still alive because its sponsors are upholding it.”

Hariri is backing Frangieh’s candidacy as part of an initiative to reach a comprehensive settlement to end the presidential vacuum and revive the work of Parliament and the government paralyzed by the power vacuum. The initiative calls for Frangieh to be elected president and for Hariri to be named prime minister.

Although Frangieh’s presidential bid is backed by regional and international powers, including Saudi Arabia, it has been stymied mainly by strong opposition from the three main Christian parties – the FPM, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party.

Asked to comment on the possibility of LF chief Samir Geagea nominating FPM founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidency, Berri said: “In this case, Gen. Aoun and MP Sleiman Frangieh must go to the [Parliament] electoral session and the one who gets the majority of votes wins.”

Hariri and former President Michel Sleiman called for the quick election of a president. Hariri received Sleiman, who is currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia, at his residence in Riyadh Sunday evening.

“During the meeting, discussions focused on the dangers resulting from the vacancy at the presidency and the need to end this abnormal and dangerous situation by electing a president as soon as possible,” said a statement released by Hariri’s media office.

Hariri also briefed Sleiman on the ongoing contacts and efforts exerted to end the 19-month-long presidential vacuum. “They discussed regional developments, especially Arab solidarity against foreign interference and strife schemes that Arab countries are facing,” the statement said.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora defended the Future dialogue with Hezbollah despite the recent tension between the two sides over Nimr’s execution. “We have always been advocates of dialogue. We will continue to do so. This dialogue is among brothers in the homeland. Our partners in the homeland are part of this homeland. We have no alternative but to open to each other despite essential [political] differences,” Siniora told delegations from the city of Sidon at his office in the eastern suburb of Hlalieh.

He said Hariri’s presidential initiative was not doomed. “Ideas relating to [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s presidential initiative are still on the table and have not been withdrawn. But circumstances have distracted attention from this initiative,” Siniora said, in a clear allusion to the Saudi-Iranian tensions.