Report: Safadi Eyes Premiership amid Rift with Miqati
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi is eyeing his candidacy to the premiership in case the cabinet collapses due to the sharp rift between the members of the government, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Monday.
Al-Safadi, who is loyal to Miqati, had joined Change and Reform bloc Minister Jebran Bassil in opposing the premier’s approach to the electricity crisis.
According to ministerial sources, al-Safadi has only voiced his support to Bassil, who is loyal to Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun, to ensure his candidacy to the premiership.
The sources said that Miqati will not exchange accusations with anyone, saying that the campaign against him is baseless as he had to suggest an alternative plan due to the sharp differences between the members of the committee tasked with finding a solution to the electricity plan.
“Miqati was forced to interfere and suggest setting new power plants, which would cost less than leasing the power-generating vessels,” the sources added.
Miqati argues that building a power plant that would generate 500 Megawatts of electricity would cost the treasury less than a proposal made by Bassil to lease the power vessels.
The daily said some parties affiliated in the March 8 forces threatened to withdraw from the cabinet, however, Miqati will not change his stances and will hold onto his convictions as he doesn’t mind appointing another premier.
The sources told the newspaper that the PM and his ally at the cabinet State Minister Ahmed Karami support al-Safadi’s candidacy to the premiership.
The premier said in a report that the establishment of the power plant takes a year and would cost maximum 480 million dollars for at least a 25-year service, while Bassil’s proposal suggests that the two companies that won the tenders would cost the state around $1 billion for a period of five years without the expenses of the fuel oil.
Bassil and al-Safadi also allege that Miqati reduced the role of the ministerial committee that according to them could have reached a decision to resolve the issue.
26 March 2012, 15:47
40
This must be the American influence on you. They only ellecct good looking men to be presidents.
26 March 2012, 18:00
31
That was a joke helicopter. I elect someone for substance and principles. Which most politicians lack, specially your leaders. Most readers and commentators here lack sense of humor.
26 March 2012, 10:35
184
Mikati say that he can build a power plant in one year where the truth is it well take him ten years just to pass the bill due bickering and fighting on who wants to PM. Same goes to Bassil, they are both equally guilty.
26 March 2012, 13:46
18
Look on the bright side: Safadi is less bald. However, if the reports of his treacherous switch of positions to Aoun's side for the sake of the Premiership are true, we cannot expect any other bright sides should he eventually get the post. Înno ya ma7la Jumblat...
26 March 2012, 15:39
91
Bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet!
Our entire system is caduc, and laws bypassed (re-elections of Lahoud, and now of Rifi etc...). Mikati=Safadi... but who will designate Safadi... he has no majority... M14 & M8 are forced to make un-natural alliances for power... we're doomed!
26 March 2012, 15:46
00
enough with this nonsense time fore a new form of governance, I suggest this modern system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF_QLhLEMks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zF_QLhLEMks#t=301s
26 March 2012, 15:46
111
He is doing so for his safety because the glorious resistance is a killing machine and is very efficient in eliminating opponents that are deemed popular (Rafic and others met that fate on its hands). So good for him, and one day he and others will be able to be in Lebanon and feel safe..... it is a matter of time.
26 March 2012, 15:50
18
Thanks to taef we still have a president. Has it been left up to the glorious resistance we will be living in welayat elfaqih now. If we can improve on taef why not, it will be a good thing but first lets have a meaningful state free of glorious resistance and arms of the Palestinians and Salafis.
26 March 2012, 16:14
01
I have a lot of respect for PM Miqati and PM Saniora but nothing for this opportunist scumbag Safadi... At least Miqati is coming up with solutions and trying to save this country a buck... He does not need to steal like Gebran Basil and the crew of his father in law, the senile prick...
26 March 2012, 16:33
07
no this time round it will not happen:
- safadi ( a known arms dealer) will never be PM
- if this government falls, there will not be another one formed under hizbushaitan, due to loss of majority.
- with the upcoming war with israel, we will be without a government, and all what that means....
26 March 2012, 16:57
00
@ flamethrower, the president is powerless not only because of taef, but because and you know it he is always at loggerheads with the FPM , on every damn appointement, although the FPM clearly stated, and its leader michel aoun, long before , that any minister loyal to the FPM is a + for the president because they supposedly seeked to give him back the power taef took... if the FPM ministers werent always against him he would have power with more ministers on his side. Maybe you would like to remember when sleiman asked for 5 ministers annd aoun just said he would not give him more than 3 but that anyway his ministers ( from the FPM) will be loyal to sleiman... we can see that eh. I dont just blame the FPM, i blame everybody in this disgusting country. starting the people who elected ALL of them, they are the real problem. Dumping wastes, showing off, prostitution with arabs for money, no laws.
26 March 2012, 16:58
00
Lebanon is only a jungle because its people are happy to live in it and nobody can tell me otherwise. Or else we would have had a revolution a long time ago to remove all these dirty politicians.
26 March 2012, 17:14
08
hmmm.. 500 million for 25 years of service from our own plant or lease vessels that will cost 1 billion for 5 years of service.....you pick you blind brainwashed fools
26 March 2012, 17:52
50
....But still you cannot compare Rafik Hariri with Saed Hariri:-)
That is why we need a democratic system in Lebanon not only at a national level but also on the level of political parties. He may not be ready, or never ready to be a leader and there could be someone more fit in the ranks of the future movement.
26 March 2012, 22:05
01
at least hariri is in a european country not without vitamin D in the slums underground like hasoon lol
27 March 2012, 08:41
00
Tyrian (ulpianus), it's true that there is no match to Rafic Hariri, that's why Hezbollah killed him. The kid as you call it isn't having the time of his life, he's abroad because there's a bounty on his head inside Lebanon. What proves to us that he isn't an extrmist like your Iranian idol Nasrallah is that he isn't spending his time in Saudi Arabia although the king's castles doors are wide open for him. True he isn't his father but he's a million times better than Berri, Aoun or the Shia terrorist. His heart is tayyib. The money, he inherited it from his father, he doesnt need to steal it from the Lebanese like other still do. Allah yi7meek ya sheikh Saad. Look at his young sister, she married a {poor} body guard. They are tolerant and open-minded. Just what Lebanon needs right now!
