'Extension or appointment': Berri says no other options for army chief crisis

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a legislative session next month, during which parliament would discuss extending the term of Army chief General Joseph Aoun, ahead of his planned retirement in January.

"I will call for a session during the first half of December," Berri told al-Jadeed TV, assuring that there are only two options, either the extension of Aoun's term or the appointment of a new army chief. "There is no third option and no assignment (of the highest ranking officer)."

Berri had hoped for the extension to take place in Cabinet, but promised the Lebanese Forces in a meeting that he would discuss Aoun's term extension in parliament if Cabinet fails to take this step before the end of this month.

"If the Lebanese Forces MPs fail to attend it, they'd be contradicting themselves," Berri said, adding that the problem is inter-Christian, as the Free Patriotic Movement refuses the extension of Aoun's term and prefers appointing a new army chief, while the LF party is pushing for the extension.

"They get upset with me when I say that the problem is inter-Christian," he sarcastically went on to say.