Future official Mustapha Allouch told MTV on Sunday that Prime Minister Saad Hariri did not attend the March 14 alliance meeting on Sunday at the Bristol Hotel because of his flight schedule. Hariri left Beirut for an official state visit to Germany on Sunday.

He also said that Kataeb Vice President Chaker Aoun represented his party in the meeting in place of party leader Amin Gemayel. The Kataeb are a historical member of March 14, he added.

According to Allouch, the Sunday meeting initiated the discussion on the national defense strategy. The alliance’s final statement calls for Lebanon’s protection to be a national, Arab and international responsibility, he also said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt did not offer an apology to Syria during his Saturday interview on Al-Jazeera television, Allouch said, adding that the PSP leader still holds Damascus responsible for the 1977 assassination of his father, Kamal Jumblatt.

However, he added that Syria wants Jumblatt to obstruct the cabinet’s work, citing an article Syrian daily Al-Watan published on Sunday criticizing the PSP leader’s Al-Jazeera interview.  

-NOW Lebanon 

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