Berri: Tuesday’s Baabda Meeting Stressed Importance of Tackling Funding Dispute

Speaker Nabih Berri stated on Wednesday that the Baabda Palace meeting on Tuesday tackled the need to reactivate the government’s functioning.

His visitors quoted him as saying: “The gatherers agreed to tackling the government spending dispute and the need to complete the 2012 state budget.”

The speaker made his remarks during his weekly meeting with lawmakers.

A meeting was held Tuesday night between President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, and Berri at the Baabda Palace.

The meeting also addressed various pending issues, including supporting the Lebanese army and exerting efforts to curb the security tensions, most notably the recent clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, continued the MPs after meeting with the speaker.

Government members are at loggerheads over a $5.9 billion spending bill that would legalize the allocation of funds made by Miqati’s cabinet.

While the Free Patriotic Movement, Amal and Hizbullah have pressured Suleiman to sign the bill into law over parliament’s failure to adopt it, ministers loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat have defended the head of state in his decision not to.

Suleiman claims that the bill includes violations that should be amended by taking into consideration the remarks made by the parliamentary finance and budget committee.