Report: Franjieh Mediating to End Berri-Aoun Spat
Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh is mediating between Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to bridge their differences, As Safir daily reported on Friday.
The newspaper said that Franjieh visited Berri in Ain el-Tineh on Thursday following talks he held with Aoun in Rabieh.
Differences between the two men grew after Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc and other Christian blocs boycotted a parliamentary session to protest the approval of the joint parliamentary committees’ proposal to employ Electricite du Liban’s contract workers.
The lawmakers argued that the permanent employment of those workers would create a sectarian imbalance at the state-run firm as around 80 percent of them belong to non-Christian sects and most of them support Berri, who is a Shiite.
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law had previously proposed to allow 700 contract workers to stand for an official exam, out of some 2,500 employees, while the rest would become employees at private companies under a three-month probation period.
The approval of the full-time employment led to accusations by the FPM that Berri violated the protocol.
While sources close to Aoun did not confirm Franjieh’s initiative, highly-informed sources told As Safir that efforts are exerted by the Lebanese authorities to find a consensual solution to the open ended-strike launched by the contract workers to appease the EDL administration, parliament, the energy minister and the bill collectors.
The workers have been demanding the cabinet to pay their June and July salaries and to publish their permanent employment decision in the official gazette.
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