March 14 Rejects ‘Unprecedented Heresy’ of June 8 Parliamentary Session

The March 14 leadership has decided that the coalition’s MPs would boycott a parliamentary session called for by Speaker Nabih Berri on June 8 to take decisions on critical issues amid the absence of a government.

Sources close to the leaderships described attempts by Berri to release the agenda of the session as an “unprecedented heresy” in light of the rejection of five members of the parliament’s bureau committee for the concept of a legislative session.

Berri’s efforts to hold the June 8 meeting is aimed at ending the role of the executive branch and the president, the sources said.

An Nahar daily quoted Caretaker Labor Minister Butros Harb as saying that “the March 14 forces can’t be part of a move that would definitely contribute to the continuation of the cabinet crisis.”

“We agreed not to attend the session because it would consolidate the confrontation with (March 8) at a time when we are in need for general consensus, particularly over sensitive issues such as the appointment of a Central Bank governor,” he said.

Harb stressed on the necessity to keep Riyad Salameh as Central Bank governor because he enjoys the trust of the Lebanese and foreign countries.

He urged Berri to give up his call for the parliamentary session which has faced the objection of the majority of members of parliament’s bureau committee.

MP Ahmed Fatfat also told As Safir daily that Berri’s move “is a clear violation of the authorities of the members of the committee.”