By KUNA,
Beirut : Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday, opening a local spiritual summit, called on the country’s warring politicial groups to cast aside their differences and focus on jump-starting national conciliation.
The president, speaking at the inauguration of the spiritual summit at the hill-top presidential palace in Baabda just southeast of Beirut, called on the country’s Christian and Muslim leaders “to launch a workshop for national dialogue to lay basis for the unification of Lebanon, to open the hearts and address all files of dissenssion.” Suleiman called on the political forces to seek speedy formation of a new government, stressing that “concessions must be ceded for serving the higher national interests.” The president affirmed that the spiritual summit is intended to “repair bridges of confidence among the Lebanese.” “The Lebanese differences have reached the level of suicide,” the president said, summing up the widespread concerns among the Lebanese toward the recurring crises that have been prevailing on the local arena.
The president after making the speech left the hall of the summit, while the clerics started examining a draft statement for the top-level meeting that grouped the country’s top spiritual figures.