Al-Rahi Holds Phone Conversations with Berri, Salam to 'Salvage the Country'

by Naharnet Newsdesk 13 March 2014, 12:23

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held on Thursday telephone conversations with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam on the dispute over the cabinet's policy statement, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said al-Rahi urged both Berri and Salam to exert stronger efforts to find a solution to the policy statement row between the March 8 and March 14 alliances.

He urged them “to salvage the country and seek the nation's higher interest,” the state-run agency said.

The government is scheduled to hold a session on Thursday afternoon to discuss the deadlock on the resistance clause of the policy statement.

If a seven-member ministerial committee fails to agree on the blueprint by Monday, the cabinet becomes resigned and President Michel Suleiman will have to call for binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier.

But Salam has already threatened to resign to protest the conditions set by the March 8 and 14 alliances on the clause.

Also Thursday, al-Rahi met with Ministers Sejaan Qazzi and Alain Hakim, who represent the Phalange party in Salam's cabinet.

Qazzi said after the talks in Bkirki that the two ministers discussed with the patriarch the latest developments on the cabinet policy statement.

https://naharnet.com/stories/en/122428