Cabinet Fails to Agree on Policy Statement after 6-Hour Meeting, Intensive Talks
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The cabinet on Thursday adjourned its discussions until Friday after the parties failed to reach an agreement over the policy statement following a six-hour meeting at the Baabda Palace and intensive consultations inside and outside the session.
Bilateral meetings between ministers were held on the sidelines of the session in a bid to reach a consensual formula for the policy statement and prevent a looming resignation by Prime Minister Tammam Salam.
“Attempts to convince Salam to postpone his resignation until tomorrow have not been successful until the moment,” MTV had reported, before the session was postponed.
The cabinet discussed a formula that mentions "the responsibility of the state regarding liberation and the right of the Lebanese people to confront occupation," according to OTV.
On the sidelines of the crucial cabinet session, several meetings were held between Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour and Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb.
The session was suspended many times because of these strenuous talks.
The cabinet also discussed a formula that was used by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil at the Arab League after adding some amendments to it. Bassil had mentioned “the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese to resist occupation.”
As the session got underway, President Michel Suleiman hoped the policy statement "will be approved tonight," adding that "it must not be put on hold for the sake of one phrase."
"The Lebanese are pinning their hopes on this cabinet," he said.
Suleiman had held a five-minute meeting before the session with Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Salam in Baabda.
Earlier on Thursday, Berri said he would hold last-minute consultations with Suleiman and Salam, who has threatened to resign over the deadlock on the policy statement to avoid a government crisis.
Berri told An Nahar daily that he would make his initiative before the cabinet session.
He said his consultations with Suleiman and Salam were supposed to give the talks on the dispute more time ahead of the Monday deadline for the seven-member ministerial committee to agree on the blueprint.
Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, who is a centrist, have prepared a proposal to resolve the deadlock. But reports said they are waiting for a rally organized by the March 14 alliance on Friday to reveal it.
An Nahar quoted a minister as saying that the proposal lies in the adoption of a statement on “the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese to resist” Israel and the resumption of the national dialogue to confirm the authority of the state.
The main dispute on the resistance clause erupted after the March 14 camp stressed that the actions of the resistance should be put under the authority of the state.
Several alliance officials called for “the right of Lebanon as a state and not the right of the Lebanese to resist Israel.”
But the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, including Berri, want to legitimize Hizbullah's arsenal by holding onto "the right of Lebanon and the Lebanese” to liberate the remaining territories occupied by Israel “and to resist any Israeli aggression.”
According to the constitution, the ministerial committee has until Monday to complete its work and transfer the policy statement to parliament for approval or else the cabinet would be considered resigned and Suleiman would have to call for new binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier.
But Salam has threatened to resign before that date if no agreement is reached despite calls by March 14 officials not to resort to such an option.
An Nahar and al-Joumhouria dailies quoted sources as saying that the officials stressed to him that his resignation would encourage Hizbullah to hold onto its condition on the policy statement.
They also said that he should be resilient amid the tough political and security situation in the country.
13 March 2014, 08:29
1214
m8 is trying to up the ant by stopping payments of fuel for the electricity just to force m14 to accept their policy statement :)
m8 does not realize that m14 is firm on this and will not accept anything less than resistance under the state control.
whoever wants to keep the same old song can dream as much as they want.
13 March 2014, 09:51
912
Lets hope m14 stand firm at least this time and dont capitulate at the last minute
In front of m8 and ha folks.
13 March 2014, 10:08
1012
The strategy of m8 and ha folks is to pour in massive votes in m14 sites like naharnet while they dont take any opposing povs in their proper media outlets .
a clever tactic m14 should learn from
13 March 2014, 15:57
1112
Jerry
m8 guys have a major voting complex :)
they have people whose sole role is to come in at night to vote their idiots up to 60 times :)
they are childish and stupid, but what to do with these a..h...s
13 March 2014, 16:46
1210
Jerry and FT, by the way, FT welcome back. Back to the off-topic subject, if this is the case then, no matter who the people involved in the use of multiple accounts are, with all due respects to the Mods, it is their responsibility to ensure that such a distasteful practice is rooted out. Allow only one user per IP even though I know the idea doesn't sound too practical, since in one home there could be one or more users who in all sincerity don't use this practice but are reduced to use a home connection such as ADSL.
13 March 2014, 10:36
1115
Hahaha... unfortunately I am sure that very soon Lebanon is going to explode in a deadly civil war, but that is due to the Iranians invading our country and their local cronies executing their orders.
you can try to twist things the way you want, but apparently what you do not realize is that unlike your typical m8 followers (who might believe your rhetoric) we see BS when it tis thrown at us. you know, unlike some: we do have brains and we analyze what is going on.
13 March 2014, 17:16
76
josephani,
M8 has reduced Lebanese politics into a bazaar, used car lot like tactics with piracy and intimidation practices added to it. M8 are stepping all over the constitution, legal practices, and political decency. All those circus-like maneuvers we (Lebanese) had to endure throughout are because M8 refuse to allow a Cabinet to be formed according to constitutional practices ........... and they use the threat of resorting to Civil unrest if Constitutional practices were enforced. This is why so many Government sectors are controlled by Amal and HA and are being used as cash cows until the cows die. I am praying for a strong Army, strong ISF so the threat of arms in the hands of a faction will not be able to derail a whole country again.
13 March 2014, 22:24
45
We'll see about that. If there's one thing that history has proven, it is that M14 only speaks of principles as bargaining chips and never holds to them. The clearest example is the STL, when Hariri Jr. offered to scrap it in return for Hezb's vote of confidence of a govt with Hariri as PM.
13 March 2014, 22:28
44
Helicopter. Why do you continue to assume it is M8 that refuses to accept a govt? It is just as much their right to oppose a policy statement as it is for M14 to do so. It's called politics. You are commenting from the standpoint that somehow M14 is the true governor of Lebanon and M8 is merely being granted a gift to join the government. You fail to realize that both are equally apart of the govt and both have equal say (the right afforded to them by the number of seats each party controls).
13 March 2014, 08:47
1113
Hezbollah assigned a lawyer to defend Jamal Daftardar, one of the leading figures in the Al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, As-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.
The news of the assignment was circulated and the legal and judicial circles were surprised by it, especially that Daftardar was the main aide for former Abdullah Azzam Brigades leader Majed al-Majed.
According to the information, Hezbollah paid a high rate for the lawyer
13 March 2014, 08:31
64
this is shameful at best. We must be the laughing stock of the international community. What could there possibly be new that hasn't been discussed already? It must be that miracle Geagea spoke of. When are we going to start focusing on whats right and whats good with our country and propose a policy statement that encompasses all this. A policy statement that provides clarity to the people and is simple to administer.provides aframe work for investment and infastructure etc. why must we always be slaves to this unhealthy addiction of being the victims and then spend eternity arguing over which evil is lessor..
13 March 2014, 08:35
710
بري: تراجعنا عن الثلاثية لكن لن نتراجع عن أي حرف من كلمة مقاومة.
يعني فينا نستغني عن الشعب او عن الجيش او عن الاثنين معا. logique.
13 March 2014, 09:08
1112
you can easily thank your m8 friends for the state of our economy for all they have done since 2000 till today!
they have caused the 2006 war, they did 7 ayar, they have blocked the country in Beirut downtown, they killed so many m14 leaders, they blocked the airport road so many times, they threatened Arabs so they do not come anymore, they have held the whole country under the mercy of their weapons....
and you wonder about our economy?
all that is required is to accept to place their weapons under the state control, that is if they really support the LAF, they should do it without any hesitation.
13 March 2014, 10:11
1010
thank you for your nice words :)
instead of this useless comment of yours why don't you pinpoint for me where in my comment I made errors!
all these events happened or not? did they affect our economy or not?
13 March 2014, 10:13
1010
are you for real? sincerely do you believe any word you said?
any sane person realizes the futility of your comment not to say your obvious stupidity!
13 March 2014, 10:40
1010
you insult our intelligence when you say what you say! it is either we call you off or ....
anyway I try to take what you said and try to stretch it in any way possible, it does not make sense, but a sign of someone who has learned the propaganda he was fed.
I asked you above to clearly say what is not real in my comment but you failed to provide a plausible answer, thus .....
13 March 2014, 11:28
48
all parties applauded ,supported ,blessed and were willing to adopt the road map of the patriarch
let this road map be policy statement and build on it
13 March 2014, 13:19
159
This the last chance to keep Lebanon to keep from descending into political and financial chaos. The stakes couldn't be higher.
We see the Lebanese credit rating plummeting. The Central Bank will soon be in disarray. Unemployment will expand, social unrest explode.
Of course this is good news for the likes of Suleiman who wants to privatize public assets. The IMF will have to be called in to "sort things out".
To understand how the IMF "sorts things out" just take a look at Greece, Spain, Portugal and many eastern EU countries ... it isn't pretty.
The parties must put aside "policy posturing" or Lebanon is on its way to asset stripping and debt serfdom to banksters and western corporations.
13 March 2014, 17:22
24
mc,
All the chaos you mentioned happened when your HA was in charge of the whole cabinet. But as a spoiled thug, M8 never have enough of the spoiler game and to top it they lack the honesty of owning up to their evil deeds. They are like the woman who sweeps in front of her door and moves it all to the door of her neighbour.
13 March 2014, 14:59
44
The Hezbollah arsenal can be quite easily made legitimate by putting it under the political direction and control of civilian government authority in Lebanon. A mutual defense treaty could be executed between Lebanon and Iran whereby the force could become legitimate as an Iranian force at the service of the Lebanese Government, like the US has treaties with South Korea or Germany.
13 March 2014, 15:19
33
But, this is not the strategy. Iran wants to keep freedom of operations with its Hezbollah brigade. The last thing it wants is to lose political control to the Lebanese political class.
Hezbollah needs the legitimization that comes with the policy statement in order to secure its sources of funding from all of the illegitimate sources that it derives its income.
13 March 2014, 15:34
68
have peace with Israel. Its best solution to Lebanon. Have peace and prosper. Forget about this chest pounding war mentality.
13 March 2014, 16:00
22
Israel first has to have peace with itself before we can have peace with Israel. The conflict with the Arabs since 1948 has been the one great unifying factor for Israelis. They can all agree about that. But about everything else they disagree, even about the definition of what it means to be a Jew.
Just yesterday, the Knesset passed a law to require the Ultraorthodox Jews join the Army and to work and this has touched off great demonstrations over their special status as special Jews.
There is much left undefined about Israel besides its borders. Like with any relationship, you have to know the person before engaging in a relationship. However, if the person does not know herself, how are we to know her?
13 March 2014, 16:52
115
Forming a new cabinet was probably seen as a political fight that one side had to win, but making a policy statement for the new cabinet that will only serve for a couple of months anyway, and it taking such a ridiculously long time makes of this issue a truly laughable matter. In light of this latest joke, my advice for Mr. Salam who in all cases is held in high esteem by us all, best would be for him to resign and leave the clowns to their own sick devices. Let them all take a good look around them, nothing works anymore in Lebanon, if these sods cannot think of the nation, then let Salam leave them till all is completely messed up. I now believe that a wise man saw all this joke and preferred not to join the circus.
14 March 2014, 00:42
00
M11er
No not walad but idiots and corrupt people are running this country. The same ones who took us through a devastating civil war and nothing was changed afterwards. And they are still leading the country
Poor Lebanon
Poor lebanese
14 March 2014, 16:05
00
Question to the Lebanese: what is more important, Hezbollah having arms/fighting in Syria? or improve the economy, improve infrastructure, create jobs, improve education, etc...?
What's our focus?
