Cabinet Governing Mechanism Marred by Suicide Attacks

The deteriorating security situation in Lebanon is expected to impose itself on a cabinet session that was held on Thursday after three suicide bombings rocked areas across the country in less than a week.

The cabinet is set to discuss a mechanism on the government's functions in the absence of a president.

But the session that was held under the chairmanship of Premier Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail will likely witness long conversations on the attacks that started Friday after a calm and a stable stretch of several months.

On Wednesday, a Saudi blew himself up in his room at Duroy Hotel, located in Beirut's Raouche seafront, as General Security officers raided the premises.

On Monday, a similar attack took place near a checkpoint in the Tayyouneh area that lies at the entrance of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hizbullah stronghold.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in eastern Lebanon's Dahr al-Baydar area near an Internal Security Forces checkpoint last Friday.

Sunni militants, who have claimed responsibility for the bombings, have warned that such attacks will continue as long as Hizbullah backs Syrian President Bashar Assad's military in his fight with the rebels.

The deteriorating security situation, which is the direct result of the spillover of Syria's civil into Lebanon, comes amid a vacuum at Baabda Palace.

President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended on Many 25, and the cabinet is discussing measures to agree on the mechanism governing government's work.

Cabinet members are in disagreement over the appropriate mechanism to exercise full executive powers, including the president’s prerogatives, during the vacuum.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas denied reports about an agreement reached among the rival ministers on a committee tasked with signing decrees.

He told al-Liwaa daily that the cabinet can task some of its members to sign the decrees as long as the Constitution has given the government the power to exercise the president's prerogatives.

G.K.

H.K.