Parliament's Policy Statement Session Adjourned to Thursday, Salam to Win Confidence Vote

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday evening adjourned a parliamentary session over the ministerial policy statement to Thursday morning after several MPs delivered speeches reflecting their opinions over Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet.

The parliament will convene again at 10:30 a.m., according to the National News Agency.

“I believe that this government should prevent vacuum and hold elections on time,” said March 14 MP Robert Ghanem during the evening session that had kicked off at 6:00 p.m., announcing that he will grant cabinet his vote of confidence.

Meanwhile, al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Ziad al-Qaderi, who hails from the Bekaa, stressed that the residents of the border town of Arsal are not “takfiris, terrorists or Zionists” but rather “Lebanese, Arab and resistant.”

“We won't accept that Arsal become the scapegoat of the resistance's changing objectives and we ask whether the security measures will only be symbolic and aimed at defusing tension,” Qaderi added.

The army deployed deployed in force in and around Arsal on Wednesday morning, reopening the vital main road after its closure heightened sectarian tension across the country. Residents of al-Labweh, which is sympathetic to Hizbullah, had erected sand barriers to block the road, saying the rockets were fired by gunmen operating in Arsal's outskirts.

For his part, Mustaqbal bloc MP Amin Wehbe stressed that “the state is more important than autonomous security."

"I won't disregard the extent of the rift between the Lebanese. We realize that this cabinet's mandate is short and we hope the presidential vote will be held on time," he added.

“Out of my respect for dialogue and Salam's cabinet, I will grant the government my vote of confidence,” he said.

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Elie Keyrouz, who withheld his confidence from cabinet, pointed out that “the policy statement brought together two contradictory issues, that of the state and that of a resistance that acts independently from it, which gives sway to lawlessness.”

Addressing Hizbullah, he added: “Is resistance an end or a permanent mean? Are your weapons aimed at protecting Lebanon or serving Iran?”

Meanwhile, MP Ali Ammar, member of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc, slammed some lawmakers who had hit out at the party during the session.

“Since the beginning of the session, we have been patient for the sake of the principle of 'national interest' but it has become evident that this silence has unleashed some parties' unrestrained attacks, after they thought that our silence was some form of defeat,” Ammar added.

“You are not our enemies as we have one enemy – Israel – which has not been mentioned during this session,” Ammar said, addressing the MPs of the rival camp.

“I swear to you that our silence was dictated by the national interest … We are not small and we are playing the game of the big players. We are big players and we have defeated big players,” he said.

LF MP Strida Geagea was the first to withhold the confidence of the parliamentary bloc, saying however that the LF lawmakers would not obstruct the government's work.

LF MPs Joseph al-Maalouf and Fadi Karam abided by the party's decision not to give its vote of confidence, making statements similar to Geagea.

The LF has no representatives in Salam's 24-member cabinet although its allies in the March 14 alliance have participated in it.

LF chief Samir Geagea, Strida's husband, has repeatedly rejected to share power with Hizbullah.

“The only solution to end the status quo is to resort to the state legally and in practice,” MP Geagea told Salam, cabinet minsters and legislators, who attended the session.

Geagea doubted that the policy statement would be able to resolve Lebanon’s security problems or help the state distance itself from the region's turmoil.

Addressing Hizbullah, she said: “Let us all put our energy in the service of the state. Your capabilities are huge and you have different expertise.”

To her allies in the March 14 alliance, Geagea said: “We have never been against dialogue. On the contrary, we engaged in talks with everyone ... to serve the interest of Lebanon and its people.”

Addressing the parliament before her was former Premier Najib Miqati, a lawmaker from the northern city of Tripoli, who gave the cabinet his vote of confidence and on the behalf of Tripoli MP Ahmed Karami.

Independent MP Robert Fadel and Change and Reform bloc lawmaker Ibrahim Kanaan followed suit.

Kanaan, who spoke on behalf of members of the bloc, said the government should guarantee the appropriate circumstances for the election of a new president.

He said Change and Reform gives it its vote of confidence for being a consensual cabinet and not on the basis of its policy statement.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Ammar Houri said in his statement that the state should regain its sovereignty.

“We hope Lebanon would distance itself from the region's turmoil,” he said.

"We disagree with some of our partners in the nation” over the involvement in Syria's war, the presence of illegitimate weapons in the country and noncooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, he said.

“I give Salam's cabinet my vote of confidence because it is a national interest government,” the MP added.

Another two members of his bloc, Mohammed Qabbani and Moein al-Merehbi, followed suit.

Change and Reform bloc lawmaker Nehmatallah Abi Nasr and National Struggle Front MP Alaeddine Terro also gave their votes of confidence.

Phalange MP Elie Marouni told lawmakers and ministers that his party “has always confronted the project to destroy the state.”

Marouni, whose party first threatened to quit the cabinet over its rejection of the phrasing of the resistance clause of the policy statement, said: “We decided to confront ... from inside the government and parliament.”