Cabinet Holds 3rd Session after Vacuum, Fails to Agree on Methodology
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The cabinet failed on Thursday to reach an agreement over the methodology it should adopt in conducting its affairs, raising fears of the emergence of paralysis in the government.
Information Minister Ramzi Jreij made the announcement after the session that was held at the Grand Serail and chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam.
He did not offer details of the discussions among the ministers, making a brief statement to reporters at the end of the session that lasted about four hours.
This was the third cabinet meeting to be held after the expiry of President Michel Suleiman's term in May 25.
Salam had told ministers that his invitation for Thursday's session was accompanied by copies of the agenda which were sent to them on May 30 to come up with a mechanism on the government's work in the absence of a president.
Despite his hopes to keep the Baabda Palace vacuum away from the government, ministers remain divided on how to take decisions and how to sign decrees.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that Salam paved way for the session by holding contacts with ministers from different parliamentary blocs.
During his phone conversations, he hoped that the ministers would engage in serious talks to adopt the mechanism that should preserve the cabinet's unity, they said.
Salam stressed to them the importance of stopping a spillover of the parliamentary crisis to the government, the sources added.
Jreij stressed after the cabinet session the need to maintain the government's unity given the presidential vacuum and the regional crises.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement, along with a number of Christian lawmakers, are boycotting legislative sessions aimed at discussing a wage scale for the public sector to protest the failure to elect a president.
The MPs claim the Taef Accord states that legislation without a head of state is unconstitutional.
Salam made the pleas after warnings that the parliament's boycott would lead to similar paralysis in the government.
Suleiman left Baabda Palace on May 25 after the rival MPs failed to elect a successor over their differences on a compromise candidate.
G.K./M.T.
H.K.
12 June 2014, 07:52
22
LBCI: Hizbullah is insisting on the unanimous approval of all ministers over the cabinet's decisions and decrees and the FPM and AMAL share its viewpoint.
The terror party and its ally aoun are now intent on paralyzing the government as well. In which country and in which system of governance must you have the approval of all the ministers/parties in order to get things done. It's like saying every citizen must agree on everything in order for the country to function.
12 June 2014, 09:09
02
Lebanon geographically and the Lebanese commercially always had the potential to be the ( with capital letters)leading country of the Middle East.Reading the comments language and style of the Lebanese, hate and lack of trust are tremendous and predominent between its citizens ,Probably this hate is embedded through upbringing ;if this hate will remain, sooner than later,Lebanon will cease to exist.
12 June 2014, 09:28
01
May be in the future we will have lawmakers working only for Lebanon , on the basis that all Lebanese have equal rights; it might help if we stop thinking we : Sunni,Chiite,Maronite,Druz,Protestant,etc...
Obviously the Present constitution created divide and rules practices.
12 June 2014, 10:59
11
Well said wolf I agree with your stand 100%. We should focus our energy towards that which unites us being the LAF. And reject that which divides us. These dinosaurs have outlasted their relevance yet we keep them in power to create further misery for our beloved lebanon. It's time for a wholesale clean up of the country for as long as one dinosaur remains our misery will be prolonged.
12 June 2014, 15:44
01
They should also use the vacuum after the cabinet session, those guys make such a mess peanut shells cigar ash everywhere.
12 June 2014, 15:59
01
A bunch of idiots, they are. Why can't run that government, like before without adding complicated schemes.
They are like kids.
