Salam Meets King Salman: Appointment of Civil Servants Shouldn't Cripple Cabinet

Prime Minister Tammam Salam met Wednesday with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz at his Royal palace in Jeddah.

Saudi King Salman held a meeting behind doors with Salam, who was accompanied by a ministerial delegation.

The closed -door meeting was held in presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

It was preceded by a wide meeting that was attended by Saudi Crown Prince, Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, Youth and Sport Minister Abdul Mutalleb Hennawi, and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil.

Salam is also accompanied on his visit by Higher Defense Council chief Mohammed Kheir and head of the Council for Reconstruction and Development Nabil al-Jisr.

The Lebanese delegation will return to Beirut on Wednesday night.

Salam had criticized earlier attempts to paralyze the cabinet over the appointments of top ranking security and military officials at state posts.

In the evening, Salam met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in Jeddah, in the presence of al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri. The talks followed a dinner banquet that Prince Mohammed threw in honor of the Lebanese delegation.

In remarks to the Saudi official news agency SPA, Salam commented on the recent anti-Saudi statements in Lebanon, stressing that “the Lebanese government expresses the official Lebanese stance, not any other party.”

“The Lebanese are people of loyalty and gratefulness and they will preserve Arab brotherhood. They will never forget the offerings of the land of the Two Holy Mosques and they won't abandon the firm and historic ties with the kingdom,” he added.

According to Lebanon's National News Agency, Salam will meet Wednesday with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and top kingdom officials.

The premier is accompanied by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, Youth and Sport Minister Abdul Mutalleb Hennawi, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Higher Defense Council chief Mohammed Kheir and head of the Council for Reconstruction and Development Nabil al-Jisr.

A Saudi grant to the Lebanese army to purchase French weapons is reportedly frozen over stances by some Lebanese officials regarding Riyadh's war against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

French diplomatic sources said in comments published in As Safir newspaper Tuesday that France's chief of Staff General Jean-Pierre Bosser expressed belief that Saudi Arabia is delaying the delivery of the second batch of French arms.

The chief of staff reportedly informed Lebanese authorities that Saudi Arabia “might have decided to freeze the grant over stances by Lebanese officials regarding its war on Yemen (in particular, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah),” the sources pointed out.

Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that launched an air war on the Huthi rebels and their allies in Yemen on March 26. Nasrallah had slammed Saudi Arabia as the source of the “takfiri ideology” in the world, vowing that it will suffer a “major defeat” in the Yemeni conflict.

In an interview published Tuesday in Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat, Salam warned that Lebanon's unity was in danger over differences between the rival parties that threatened to paralyze the parliament and the cabinet in the absence of a president.

The political crisis that is the result of the vacuum at Baabda Palace “led to a semi-paralysis of the legislative branch and created obstacles in the cabinet,” Salam said.

“If the situation remains unchanged, the negative atmosphere will worsen and this could not help us in preserving internal stability to confront dangers,” he told the newspaper.

Asked whether he feared that his government would collapse, the PM said: “I have fears on Lebanon and everything else.”

He urged the rival parties to be wise and to avoid disputes and hold onto the consensus that led to the creation of his government around 18 months ago.

“Such a consensus should also lead to the election of a new president,” the PM told the newspaper. “It is the only means to end the political crisis at this difficult stage.”

Lebanon has been without a head of state since Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended in May 2014.

The failure to elect a new president has had crippling effects on the parliament and the cabinet.

“What's obstructing the work of the government is the behavior and the stances of political parties,” said Salam. “They have resorted to settling scores.”

Asked whether the ministers representing Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun could resign from the cabinet, Salam said: “I have heard about this in the media. But I personally haven't felt that the issue is serious .”

“We hope the situation would not reach to paralysis … because it would lead to more difficulties in confronting this difficult stage,” he stated.

“Everyone will be harmed by it,” Salam warned.

Aoun has hinted that his ministers would resign if the government does not make appointments of high-ranking security and military officials. He has rejected outright a plan to extend their terms.

He allegedly backs the appointment of his son-in-law, Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz, as army commander.

Salam told Asharq al-Awsat that his visit to Saudi Arabia aims at stressing the strong ties with the kingdom, which he said “is fighting a clear war against terrorism.”

“We should all stand in solidarity with this situation,” he told the newspaper.

Asked about Nasrallah's campaign of criticism against Saudi Arabia over its airstrikes on Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen, Salam said: “All political parties have the right to express their viewpoints on local and regional issues.”

He noted however that “such stances would result in an unsatisfactory situation.”

Y.R./G.K.