More crises and domestic problems are on the horizon, as the Lebanese look for a way out of the country’s political paralysis. What’s most worrisome are diplomatic reports sent to political leaders and officials in the country on regional groups that are preparing – with help of domestic parties – security and political acts that will increase tensions and hit the country’s economy and financial sector.

For his part, President Michel Sleiman is closely watching the situation, in preparation for a step he will soon launch.

Sources close to Baabda Palace say that Sleiman has began mulling over suggestions he received during discussions before and after Eid al-Adha. Most of these exchanges were kept away from the media in order to prevent undisciplined political elements from interfering.

According to sources, the president is tackling domestic issues on the basis of preventive diplomacy, which means that now is the time to move from working to prevent disputes from arising to preventing conflicts from escalating and becoming entrenched.

They added that the president’s position is that war and conflict are not inevitable as, most of the time, one can influence the course of events to prevent conflicts from arising or growing worse, but this requires political will and adopting a preventive approach to reinforce domestic capabilities, including building national frameworks for negotiations and dialogue.

The sources say that it is this stance that drives the president’s calls for national dialogue and a new round of discussions to take place in a direct and humble manner, as the success of dialogue usually depends on the concessions – at times painful but ultimately beneficial – that parties makes.

They say that negotiations between Lebanon’s parties require extreme flexibility and distance from foreign powers that are working for their own interests at the expense of national interest.

The sources mentioned agreements such as the Taif Accord, which re-established the consensual spirit of the 1943 National Pacts, and the Doha Accord, which lay down solid bases for the Lebanese political game, including the banning of the use of force or arms for political gains. In addition, there are the parliament dialogue meetings in Ain al-Tineh and Baabda.

Other presidential sources told The Daily Star that everything published in the media about new frameworks for dialogue is mere speculation that doesn’t add up to any truth, as the president has not decided to change the rules of dialogue and has only done some re-tooling to keep apace of regional and domestic political developments.

Political sources regret the attempts of some parties to link the return to dialogue and the fate of the Syrian crisis, because this would prove that the country is unable to confront domestic issues in isolation of foreign powers.

As for linking the return to dialogue with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the sources stress that the STL will be dealt with according to institutional and constitutional frameworks since everyone agrees on funding and the differences are only a matter of the source.

March 14 says that the funding for the STL should be from the state coffers as it was the country that signed the agreement with the United Nations to establish the court, while March 8 argues that the funding should come from the pockets of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Separately, during their weekly meeting, Sleiman and Speak Nabih Berri discussed new developments on the domestic scene, especially events in the Middle East and their repercussions on divisions in Lebanon. Berri also stressed the need to support the majority to launch national dialogue soon, without changing the format.