Salam Expresses Distress over Cabinet's Performance, Urges Rivals to Ease Crises
Prime Minister Tammam Salam criticized on Monday the performance of his cabinet, expressing hope that the political arch-foes would facilitate things instead of complicating them.
“The cabinet is exerting efforts to resolve the Syrian refugees and abducted servicemen crises,” Salam said in comments published in several local newspapers.
He pointed out that his cabinet “stands powerless before some matters.”
The premier's visitors quoted him as saying to An Nahar newspaper that the ministers are exerting “half their capacities.”
The cabinet assumed the executive tasks of the president at the end of President Michel Suleiman's tenure in May as stated by the constitution until a new head of state is elected.
The sharp differences among the parliamentary blocs on a compromise head of state is delaying the election.
Asked about the presidential poll, Salam's visitors told As Safir that he is following up the matter with Speaker Nabih Berri.
He considered that Berri is fully carrying out his parliamentary tasks as a speaker and the head of a parliamentary bloc.
“I head no parliamentary bloc nor a party, thus my only field is the government.”
The PM noted that his government “is carrying out the necessary endeavors to free the abducted soldiers and policemen,” adding that the indirect contacts with jihadists are ongoing.
Jihadists from the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-affiliate Nusra Front briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.
Three hostages have already been killed by their captors, and the country has been on edge for months over the fate of the remaining soldiers and policemen.
Lebanon is deeply divided over the war in Syria.
Salam described his expected visit to Brussels on Monday as an “opportunity to deepen the ties with the European Union.”
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