Report: Hizbullah, Marada to Partake in Cabinet Meeting
Hizbullah and the Marada Movement did not take a decision to boycott the cabinet's future meetings and their latest absence from the government session was only temporary, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.
Sources close to Prime Minister Tammam Salam told the daily that discussions on the impasse at the governmental level following the absence of ministers of Hizbullah, Marada and the Free Patriotic Movement from the latest meeting are at a halt right now because of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
The sources quoted Salam as saying: “It is crucial that ministers of the Change and Reform bloc understand the impropriety of boycotting the meetings, obstructing the government’s work and the continued media and political escalation.”
The circles added that there is plenty of time for discussions until the next cabinet meeting on September 28, after the PM returns back to Lebanon from a trip to the United Nations in New York.
March 8 ministerial sources also pointed out that “the boycott was limited to one session and that no decision has been made to boycott future meetings, at least not so far.”
For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri assured that “Marada ministers will inevitably attend the next meeting and that Hizbullah who missed the latest meeting in solidarity with the FPM will in turn attend future meetings because their absence threatens the government and the party is keen on the government and keen on its continuity in the current circumstances.”
Last week, Hizbullah ministers boycotted the meeting in solidarity with a similar stance taken by its ally the Free Patriotic Movement.
The FPM's recent boycott of cabinet meetings is linked to the thorny issue of military and security appointments and the government's decision-taking mechanism in the absence of a president.
FPM head and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil had accused the government of not respecting the National Pact when it “convenes in the presence of ministers representing only six percent of a main component of the country (Christians).”
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