Miqati Sends Envoy to al-Rahi to Ease Tensions over Appointments File

Prime Minister Najib Miqati sent his adviser Issa al-Khoury to Bkirki on Friday in order to ease tensions with Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi over the government’s “slow” approach in settling the appointments file, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Minister of Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish stressed that this issue requires political consensus in order to be resolved, reported As Safire newspaper on Saturday.

He also added that it requires all ministers to have their priorities set straight in order to properly address the state appointments.

He made his remark in reference to some ministers’ failure to present the vacancies in their ministries, said the newspaper.

Differences between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on the Maronite shares in state institutions will most likely delay the appointments.

“There is no strain with Aoun or anyone else,” Suleiman said Thursday. “I have invited him to dinner.”

But according to media reports on Friday, efforts exerted by the seat of the Maronite church to bring the viewpoints of the president and the FPM chief closer have not yet yielded results.

Aoun is insisting on allowing each minister to name his own candidate for a post linked to his ministry but Suleiman holds onto a decision adopted by the government for each minister to name three candidates and allow the cabinet to choose from among them.

The main bone of contention between them is the post of the head of the Higher Judicial Council.

Suleiman is supporting Judge Alice Shabtini, who now heads the Military Appeals Court, to the post for her seniority and for “having a clean file.” But Aoun is backing Judge Tanios Meshleb to give him enough time to make achievements given that Shabtini has only a year and a few months before she retires.

Aoun also favors Meshleb, who is seen as an FPM supporter, given that the justice ministry is headed by FPM minister Shakib Qortbawi.

But the continued bickering between Suleiman and Aoun and the stalemate in the appointment of civil servants reserved for Maronites have frustrated Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

Al-Rahi and Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh, Aoun’s ally, discussed the procrastination in the appointments over dinner in Bkirki on Thursday.

The sources of the conferees told An Nahar Friday that the patriarch expressed hope that the obstacles hindering the appointments would be removed.

Meanwhile, the head of the Civil Service Council, Khaled Qabbani, said a committee has studied the file of candidates and nominated three persons for each post.

He told An Nahar that the Council referred their files to Prime Minister Najib Miqati for cabinet approval.