Photo by: AFP

"I feel that this time, despite all the difficulties, they will reach an agreement, especially after all the bloodshed of recent days," businessman Abdullah Abu Tahan told AFP. The talks in Qatar between the Hezbollah-led opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, and the ruling majority, backed by the West, are focused on electing a president, forming a unity government and a new electoral law. The thorniest issue is whether the Shiite Hezbollah movement should continue to have weapons even though all other militias were disarmed at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. "The leaders saw with their own eyes the bloodletting and they will not return from Qatar without a solution," said Abu Tahan at his shop in west Beirut's Hamra shopping district. The militant Hezbollah seized control of Beirut's mostly Muslim half at the height of clashes pitting it against Sunni and Druze pro-government forces. The clashes, which also spread to other areas of Lebanon, erupted after the government ordered a probe into Hezbollah's telecommunications network -- a move seen by the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “declaration of war”. Last week the government revoked the decision and agreed with its partners in the ruling majority to join the opposition for the Arab League-brokered talks. But Abu Tahan, echoing the feeling of many of his compatriots, complained that "the Lebanese are unable of finding their own solutions" and must seek outside help. Saudi Arabia hosted a national dialogue in 1989 that led to the Taef accords which ended the civil war.