Salam Optimistic on Cabinet Row, Rejects to 'Challenge' Anyone

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed optimism regarding the cabinet session set to be held on Thursday, stressing that he doesn't want to “challenge” any party.

“Consultations are ongoing with all parties and I have no will to exclude anyone amid the tough situation,” Salam said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Wednesday.

He expressed “openness to all parties,” pointing out that he is “keen to grant ministers the required timeframe to review the cabinet's agenda.”

Lebanon has been plunged into a leadership vacuum after Michel Suleiman's presidential term ended on May 25 with rival political blocs still divided over a new leader.

Over the past two months the parliament convened five times to try to elect a successor to Suleiman but failed during the last four sessions due to a lack of quorum.

Asked about Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's stance that he rejects the work of the cabinet within a presidential vacuum, Salam said: “The cabinet will not end crises or carry out an extraordinary work but the interests of people shouldn't be obstructed.”

He noted that paralysis will not help the election of a new head of state.

“We are determined to act carefully with the jurisdictions granted to the cabinet (by the constitution) under presidential vacancy,” Salam told the newspaper.

A row among the political arch-foes rose in the cabinet over a mechanism regulating the government’s work during the ongoing presidential vacuum.

The cabinet assumes the executive tasks of the president as stated by the constitution until a new head of state is elected.

The last two cabinet sessions failed to resolve the dispute among the rival parties.

The presidential vacuum raised fears that it would affect Lebanon's power-sharing agreement under which the president should be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.

On his failure to attend the inauguration of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Salam said that he “gave up his right after he found that it would be inappropriate for only two Muslim (Lebanese) leaders to attend the ceremony.”

He revealed that he tasked his deputy Samir Moqbel, a Christian, to represent him at the ceremony to create balance.

“This is my conviction,” Salam concluded.

Last week, Speaker Nabih Berri led a Lebanese delegation to participate in the inauguration of the new Egyptian president.

H.K.

G.K.