BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman, voicing concern over deep political divisions between rival factions, is planning to consult with the country’s top leaders on launching a new round of national dialogue aimed eventually at achieving an inter-Lebanese reconciliation, Environment Minister Nazim Khoury said Sunday.

“In his call for national dialogue, President Sleiman was motivated by the sharp political split in the country as well as internal and external challenges,” Khoury, an ally of the president, told The Daily Star.

Noting the “instability” in the Arab world as a result of popular uprisings demanding reforms and regime change, Khoury said: “The local, regional and international circumstances all require the resumption of dialogue among the Lebanese.”

Khoury, one of three ministers representing Sleiman in Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet, said the president will first sound out the views of the country’s political leaders on the proposed dialogue before issuing a call for a national conference. He expected the March 8 and 14 parties to put conditions on attending.

“The primary aim of the president’s call for national dialogue is to bring about an inter-Lebanese reconciliation,” Khoury said.

Earlier Sunday, a political source said Sleiman’s call for national dialogue bringing together March 8 and March 14 leaders was aimed at protecting the country from internal and external challenges threatening its stability.

“The president will seek to sound out the leaders’ views on the shape, mechanism and topics of the planned dialogue before deciding on calling for a national conference,” the source said.

“What prompted the president to call for a national dialogue was that he was feeling internal and external challenges, such as the indictment with its internal and external repercussions,” the source added.

He was referring to the long-awaited indictment issued by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon on June 30, accusing four Hezbollah members of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and demanding their arrest.

Sleiman issued the call for national dialogue between rival factions during a dinner he hosted at his residence in Amsheet in honor of Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai Saturday night attended by Speaker Nabih Berri, Mikati and leaders and lawmakers from the March 8 and March 14 parties. Sleiman warned that the political schism threatened to destroy the country’s national fabric and underlined the need for a genuine reconciliation between the feuding parties.

“The discussions and heated debates of the past weeks have shown sharp political divisions that could weaken the spirit of [the National] Charter if they get worse and shake the national fabric,” Sleiman said.

“Consequently, they [the debates] showed how much Lebanon was in need for a genuine reconciliation, a frank and comprehensive dialogue and a quick work aimed at rebuilding the elements of confidence among its leaders and the various segments of its people, especially since the Lebanese system respects plurality,” he said.

Sleiman was referring to Parliament’s three-day heated debate of the government’s policy statement ahead of a vote of confidence on July 5-7 during which March 14 lawmakers lashed out at Mikati, accusing him of renouncing the STL and putting Lebanon on a collision course with the international community. Two MPs, one from the March 8 camp and the other from the March 14 camp, exchanged acrimonious words calling each other “dog.”

In one of the sessions, Berri had to intervene, telling the quarreling MPs that the fiery rhetoric showed that reconciliation was badly needed between the March 8 and March 14 camps. Sleiman said he will soon begin a series of consultations with the country’s leaders and representatives of the people “to develop an appropriate framework for dialogue to protect and fortify Lebanon against internal and external dangers, without halting the main efforts aimed at reaching an agreement on a national strategy to defend the country.”

“Israel’s latest threats and its coveting of natural resources stored in our territorial waters are supposed to enhance our determination to unify our ranks through a constructive dialogue,” Sleiman said.

Last week, Sleiman warned Israel against taking any unilateral decisions to exploit Lebanon’s resources in the demarcation of disputed maritime borders, vowing that the country would defend its sea and land boundaries and rights by all legitimate means.

Sleiman’s warning came as Lebanon is gearing up to confront Israel at the United Nations in a long-simmering dispute over offshore gas and oil reserves following the Israeli government’s approval on July 10 of a map of its proposed maritime borders which Lebanon deemed an aggression and an infringement on its right to an exclusive economic zone.

Sleiman also said “constitutional loopholes,” which had paralyzed the work of state institutions, “underlined the need for a frank and comprehensive national dialogue on how to develop this system and allow it to emerge from its crisis.”

However, the call for national dialogue comes against the backdrop of March 14 parties’ tough stance. Last week, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in an interview with MTV that he will attend a national dialogue conference only if it discusses one topic: Hezbollah’s arms.

This stance was reaffirmed Sunday by Beirut MP Ammar Houri, a member of Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc, who told LBCI TV: “The dialogue must discuss Hezbollah’s arms.” He said that during the previous dialogue sessions, agreement was reached on the STL, “but the other side [Hezbollah and its allies] backed down on it.”

Another Future bloc MP Hadi Hobeish told Future News TV: “Dialogue must deal with only one point: Hezbollah’s arms and how to hand them over to the Lebanese state.”

The last session of dialogue was held in November last year and was boycotted by most March 8 leaders amid mounting divisions between the March 8 and March 14 coalitions over the STL. The dispute led to the collapse of Hariri’s Cabinet on Jan. 12.

During the Amsheet dinner, views were identical among the attending leaders on the significance of dialogue since the 2008 Doha Accord which called for avoiding the use of violence or arms to resolve political differences. Informed sources said that the leaders also agreed to uphold the pact of honor reached during the national dialogue committee’s meeting at the Baabda Palace on April 15, 2010, to halt media and political campaigns between rival factions.