Cabinet Delays Foreign Ministry Appointments at Mansour's Request
The cabinet on Tuesday evening confirmed media reports circulated earlier in the day, postponing the discussion of appointing a secretary general and a political affairs director for the foreign ministry.
Briefing reporters after a cabinet session, acting information minister Wael Abu Faour said the debate was postponed “at the request of Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, so that all diplomatic appointments take place as one batch.”
An article on appointments to diplomatic posts was removed from the agenda of Tuesday's cabinet session after political forces interfered over sectarian causes, An Nahar daily reported.
The newspaper quoted ministerial sources as saying that the article on the appointment of the secretary-general and the director of political affairs at the foreign ministry was “consensually” withdrawn to make all the diplomatic appointments in a single step.
But An Nahar said that several officials interfered in the process in the past few days, freezing the decision to make the two appointments which should have been later followed by changes in the ranks of 60 ambassadors, 15 general consuls and several secretaries.
The foreign ministry is currently witnessing vacancies in the two posts, in addition to 34 other diplomatic positions.
An Nahar reported Monday that FM Mansour suggested Ambassadors Mohammed al-Hajjar, Mustafa Hamdan and Wafiq al-Ruhaimi to the post of the secretary-general of the ministry.
Al-Ruhaimi will most likely be appointed, it said.
Mansour also suggested three other Ambassadors for the post of director of political affairs. They are Charbel Aoun, Charbel Wehbeh, who will most probably be chosen, and Sylvie Fadlallah, the daily added.
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is a Free Patriotic Movement official, held talks on Monday in the second visit of the minister to Bkirki in one week.
Al-Rahi and Bassil discussed the issue of appointments amid continued efforts by the seat of the Maronite church to bring the viewpoints of FPM chief Michel Aoun and President Michel Suleiman closer, An Nahar said.
Aoun and Suleiman had been lately bickering on the name of the head of the Higher Judicial Council. But the newspaper said that the discussions did not focus on specific posts.
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