FPM Ministers Link Participation in Cabinet Session to Miqati’s Efforts to Meet their Requests

Ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun have stressed that they would boycott a cabinet session set to discuss the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday unless Premier Najib Miqati meets their demands.

“No solution can salvage the government if the Change and Reform bloc’s clear requests are not met,” Energy Minister Jebran Bassil told As Safir daily published Monday.

“We don’t mind discussing ways to resolve the funding crisis but this alone is not enough,” he said. “The solution should be comprehensive.”

“What is more important during the cabinet session end of the month? The demand to resolve the wage dispute? or the request to provide salaries to the tribunal’s employees?” Bassil wondered.

On Saturday, the bloc’s ministers stressed that their participation in the cabinet hinges on a set of conditions that the government should meet. Among them are the appointments at the Higher Judicial Council, resolving the wage dispute for employees and implementing several development projects in the electricity and water sectors.

Culture Minister Gaby Layyoun, who also represents Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc in the cabinet, told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that the STL funding is secondary.

“We reject the cabinet to be based on the payment of Lebanon’s shares to the international community,” he said.

“We were surprised by Premier Najib Miqati’s announcement through the media that the barometer of the government’s stay in power or collapse is linked to a very stupid issue which is the payment of a $30 million international ransom,” he told al-Joumhouria in remarks published Monday.

Layyoun was referring to Miqati’s announcement through LBC’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on Thursday that he would resign if the cabinet failed to pay its $33 million dues to the tribunal for this year.

“The message should be clear to everyone. There won’t be any participation in Wednesday’s session unless all the issues that concern the citizens are dealt with,” Layyoun warned.

When asked if the Tashnag and Marada movement would support the Change and Reform bloc in its decisions, he said there would be “full solidarity.”