Hizbullah Reportedly Won't Mediate between Aoun and Berri

Hizbullah will not mediate between its allies President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri in the ongoing spat over the controversial officers seniority decree, media reports said.

“Until further announcement, Hizbullah does not intend to launch a mediation,” ministerial sources told al-Hayat newspaper in remarks published Monday.

The party is concerned with “respecting the Constitution and state institutions, which means that it backs the viewpoint of its ally Berri but does not have the intention to spark a debate with its other ally, Aoun,” the sources added.

Other media reports had said that Hizbullah would intervene after the holidays.

The Aoun-Berri spat broke out after the president and the premier signed a decree granting one-year seniority to a number of officers. Berri and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil have insisted that the decree should have also carried the finance minister's signature.

Aoun and his aides have argued that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any “financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued against.

Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons.

The officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun’s military government from Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993 before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.