Aoun Urges Cabinet Session on Oil Exploration: Those Opposing It Want Lebanon's Bankruptcy
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun urged on Tuesday holding a cabinet meeting to discuss oil extraction, accusing those obstructing a governmental session of “wanting Lebanon's bankruptcy.”
"I call on the president and the (caretaker) prime minister to hold a cabinet meeting and discuss the issue of petroleum extraction,” Aoun said after the weekly meeting of his Change and Reform bloc.
He warned: “This is our last resort to protect the Lebanese people.”
Aoun accused political factions “obstructing” a cabinet session on this issue of subjecting the state to “bankruptcy.”
He explained: “We are committed to this and those opposing oil extraction want to subject the state to bankruptcy because this issue draws an end to the collapse of the financial situation and to chaos.”
Acute discord among Lebanese officials is delaying the awarding of 10 of the oil blocks as Speaker Nabih Berri is calling for the assigning of the 10 offshore blocks for oil exploration at once.
Meanwhile, caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil is calling for designating only two blocks for the meantime.
Lebanese factions are also at odds regarding a cabinet session to endorse two decrees essential to award the oil blocks for the oil companies.
The decrees call for demarcating 10 maritime oil exploration blocks and setting up a revenue-sharing model.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati continuously argued that holding a session for the cabinet requires a unanimous political agreement, pointing out that a caretaker cabinet can't approve non-essential decrees.
However, Berri and Bassil call for the caretaker to hold an extraordinary session to approve the two decrees and guarantee Lebanon's rights.
In a related matter, the FPM leader noted that classifying some banks in Lebanon under B and C levels signals bankruptcy.
“The state's expenditures and the financial situation must be controlled,” he stated.
On the situation of the northern city of Tripoli, Aoun said it “has not changed” after the recent truce.
"And the proof is the assassination of Sheikh Saadeddine Ghiyyeh.”
He added: “No security decision will end the clashes in Tripoli and we lament that this topic our main discussion everyday.”
Ghiyyeh, a pro-Syrian regime Islamic Action Front official, was killed on Tuesday after sustaining gunshots wounds to his head when masked men opened fire at him in al-Bahsa in Tripoli.
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