Cabinet Approves Saudi Grant, Asks Bou Saab to Issue Passing Statements to Students

The council of ministers on Thursday approved the one billion dollar Saudi grant to the Lebanese army, as reports said the needs of the military institution and of the Internal Security Forces will be provided soon.

The cabinet also tasked Education Minister Elias Bou Saab with issuing passing statements to students who applied for official exams on Saturday at most, after negotiations failed with the Syndicate Coordination Committee.

"The cabinet approved officially the one billion dollar Saudi grant to arm the military institution and the Internal Security Forces,” Information Minister Ramzi Jreij announced after a meeting at the Grand Serail.

MTV reported that the amount will be deposited in an account at the Central Bank.

NBN television, meanwhile, said the cabinet set the mechanism based on which the grant will be spent.

"It will provide the army and the ISF's needs soon,” it added.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq noted that the mechanism based on which the grant will be spent is “being prepared by legal experts.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri had announced last week that Saudi Arabia decided to support the military institution with a one billion dollar grant, following the deadly clashes between troops and extremist militants in the northeastern border town of Arsal.

Hariri made a surprise return to Lebanon on Friday, after spending three years abroad, and declared during a security meeting at the Grand Serail that he was tasked bu Saudi King Abdullah with supervising the management of the grant.

In a separate matter, Bou Saab assured that he exerted all efforts to rescue the school year and has discussed with different political parties the possibility of holding a parliamentary session.

"But all parties said no one can guarantee a session to adopt the new wage scale,” Jreij quoted Bou Saab as saying.

Bou Saab communicated this with the SCC and said that he needed to draw an end to the suffering of students and their families, Jreij noted.

Accordingly, the cabinet tasked the Education Minister with issuing passing statements to rescue the students' future.

The ministers also approved a draft law to open a credit account worth 450 billion Lebanese pounds to pay the pensions' deficit, and to give al-Iskan a loan of 30 billion Lebanese pounds to pay the pending interests to banks.

Also on Thursday, the cabinet approved a decree to establish a second bureau branch of the ministry of labor in Mount Lebanon, to facilitate and speed up the issuing of citizens' transactions.

As well, the government approved Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi's proposal of temporarily offering scholarships to workers and employees aged between 4 and 25, in the coming academic year 2013-2014.

“Kids of female employees would not benefit from any scholarship, unless the mothers were in charge of all their financial burdens or were married to employees who do not benefit from scholarships,” the state-run National News Agency explained.

Only employees who have had spent one entire year working at their company before the start of the school year will benefit from the scholarships, the NNA remarked

“And only three children in each family can benefit from these scholarships,” the same source pointed out.

S.D.B.