Salam Says No Cabinet Session Soon over Political Differences

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said he did not expect to call for a cabinet session anytime soon over the lack of consensus among the country's rival political leaders.

“We want the session to be productive and we want it to become a turning point in resolving the waste crisis,” Salam told As Safir newspaper published on Monday.

“But unfortunately the conditions are not ripe yet to hold such a session,” he said.

In similar remarks to al-Joumhouria and al-Liwaa, sources close to Salam quoted him as saying that “the cabinet sessions are linked to the results of the political atmosphere in the country and the (national) dialogue sessions.”

“If there are no sessions, I will be more aware that it would be useless for the government to convene. This is what I informed the conferees during the last round of dialogue,” he said.

The last session of the national dialogue, which is chaired by Speaker Nabih Berri, was held at the parliament on Wednesday.

But Berri adjourned the all-party talks to October 26 because he will be traveling abroad.

In his remarks to As Safir, Salam lamented that the political division is reflecting negatively on the mechanism which should be adopted for the implementation of the waste plan.

The contentious point lies in finding a landfill in the eastern Bekaa Valley, he said.

He also called for partnership in confronting the garbage crisis.

Asked whether he thought that differences on the promotion of military officers would cause more government paralysis, Salam said: “The entire country is paying the price” of the failure to reach a settlement on the controversial issue.

“It is also paying the price of a fervent political conflict over the next president,” he added.

The PM also said that he was backing civil society activists when they first began holding protests against the waste crisis that erupted following the closure of the Naameh landfill south of Beirut mid-July.

He described their demands as “righteous,” but warned that he would not allow the protesters to “destroy the country.”

During their last demonstration in downtown Beirut, the protesters inflicted heavy damage on public and private property.

Security forces used water cannons and eventually fired tear gas canisters to disperse them for trying to get past barricades and reach the parliament.

The demonstrations over the lingering garbage crisis that has seen rubbish pile up in the streets of the capital have in recent weeks grown into a wider protest movement against an entire political class seen as corrupt and dysfunctional.

G.K.

D.A.