National Dialogue, Cabinet Sessions Adjourned as Drive to End State Security 'Marginalization' Gathers Steam
A national dialogue session whose discussions were set to focus on the electoral draft-law on Wednesday was adjourned following the death of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's mother.
Speaker Nabih Berri, who hosts the all party-talks at Ain el-Tineh, announced late Tuesday that the session was adjourned. He did not set a new date.
A cabinet session that was scheduled to be held on Thursday was also adjourned by the secretary-general of the government.
Berri was set to urge Lebanon’s rival leaders during Wednesday's national dialogue session to agree on an electoral law.
He was planning to review the final report of the parliamentary committee tasked with drafting the law to pressure the country’s politicians into assuming their responsibilities and ending the deadlock.
But the issue was adjourned after Salam's mother passed away.
The cabinet had also important issues on its agenda, including the airport security.
A ministerial source told al-Liwaa daily that the government was set to discuss from outside the agenda the visit of U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to Lebanon and the loans promised by the international community to help the country cope with the burden of Syrian refugees.
The controversy on the State Security agency was also set for discussion.
Christian cabinet ministers have been complaining over the alleged marginalization of the general-directorate of State Security.
The directorate had sent a bill to the cabinet on March 20, 2014 asking for the creation of a six-member leadership authority under which the director-general of State Security, Maj. Gen. George Qaraa, a Catholic, would have the casting vote.
But reports have said that the former secretary-general of the cabinet, Suhail Bouji, has paralyzed the plan by saying that the approval of the bill requires a draft-law to be adopted by the parliament unlike a decision made by the Shura Council.
The Christian ministers are also complaining that Qaraa is being snubbed during meetings of the heads of the country's security agencies.
Sources at the seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the solution to the controversial issue comes through the election of a president who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
The head of state “can be fair to all sides and bring back the balance to state institutions,” they said.
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