Sri Lanka Opposition Leader and President discuss key political issues

Sri Lanka's Leader of Opposition Ranil Wickremasinghe who is also the leader of main opposition United National Party accompanied by a group of his party's senior legislators met with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Monday at the Temple Trees to discuss key political issues in the country.

The talks between the President and the Opposition Leader were mainly focused on the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) proposed to negotiate a political solution to the ethnic issue and the implementation of the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), sources said.

During the meeting, the President has discussed his reasons to appoint the PSC to achieve a political solution to devolve power to minorities and asked the opposition to participate in the process.

The opposition party has indicated their willingness to take part in the PSC process if the government was able to take meaningful steps to create conditions conducive for its participation, according to UNP sources.

The UNP group has said that the PSC would not be meaningful without the participation of the major Tamil party, Tamil national Alliance (TNA) and has assured that the party is was willing to play the role of mediator to bring the TNA to the PSC if the government was willing to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) together with the opposition.

The Opposition Leader was accompanied by UNP parliamentarians Joseph Michael Perera, Tissa Attanayake, John Amaratunga, Ravi Karunanayaka, and Lakshman Kiriella.

Ministers Maithripala Sirisena, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Susil Premajayantha, Dullas Alahapperuma, and Basil Rajapaksa were also present at the occasion.