Lebanese Officials in Action to Resolve Cabinet Crisis

Several parties have launched initiatives to resolve the dispute among cabinet members over the government's decision-making mechanism, sources said.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat, a centrist, has tasked Health Minister Wael Abou Faour to hold talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Hizbullah officials.

A ministerial source told al-Mustaqbal daily published on Tuesday that Jumblat aims to find a solution to the cabinet crisis before it convenes next week.

The solution should be acceptable by all parties represented in the government, mainly Salam and Free Patriotic Movement official MP Michel Aoun, the source said.

Abou Faour met with Salam at the Grand Serail on Monday.

Lebanese Forces officials also told al-Mustaqbal that LF chief Samir Geagea will try to bridge the gap between Salam and Aoun although his party is not represented in the cabinet.

Geagea met on Tuesday with the PM at the Grand Serail.

Differences between Salam and Aoun grew last month when the FPM began warning that its ministers would not attend any session whose agenda is not topped with the appointment of high-ranking military and security officials.

Last week, Aoun's son-in-law Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil accused the prime minister of violating the Constitution and infringing on the Christian president’s powers at the start of the cabinet session.

Despite the dispute and a protest held the FPM near the Grand Serail, the cabinet decided to meet on July 23 to discuss its working mechanism in the absence of a president.

A high-ranking parliamentary source said that Hizbullah has also launched an initiative to resolve differences between its two allies – Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri who heads the Amal Movement.

The source told al-Mustaqbal that Hizbullah is trying to convince Berri to add several draft-laws that are backed by the Change and Reform bloc to the agenda of a parliamentary session that he is seeking to call for.

Aoun's lawmakers and other Christian blocs have said they would boycott any session which does not have on its agenda a draft-law on granting Lebanese expats the citizenship.

Berri said on Sunday that it was important to hold an extraordinary parliamentary session to approve several draft-laws, including the Bisri dam, which when built would bring potable water to 1.8 million people in Lebanon.

Parliament, which has been paralyzed since the term of President Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014, convenes twice a year in two ordinary sessions -- the first starts mid-march until the end of May and the second from the middle of October through the end of December.

Berri needs the signature of several cabinet ministers to call for an extraordinary legislative session in the absence of a president.