Berri Has High Hopes on Dialogue, Says Cabinet 'Burnt Down'

Speaker Nabih Berri has described the situation of the government as “burned down” but was optimistic that the national dialogue would stop the country from falling into chaos.

In a chat with reporters on his way to Bucharest, Berri said: “The situation of the government is not enviable. It is burned down.”

Despite such a description for the cabinet paralysis, the speaker said he was not concerned that Prime Minister Tammam Salam would resign.

He said the all-party talks that he is chairing and the dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement, which are being held under his sponsorship, are the “glimpse of hope.”

The national dialogue and the talks between the rival parties “should continue given the positive outcome they have,” Berri, who heads Amal Movement, said.

“They both guarantee an atmosphere of stability,” he told reporters.

The cabinet has been unable to convene due to huge differences between its members on the promotion of high-ranking military officers and the decision-making mechanism that it should adopt in the absence of a president.

The vacuum at Baabda Palace has paralyzed the parliament and had bad consequences on the performance of the government.

Asked by reporters about the country's waste crisis, Berri expressed disappointment.

He said: “The garbage issue became a waste.”

“If the situation remains the same, then the trash crisis will be similar to the electricity crisis,” he said, adding “there would be incinerators in towns similar to generators in neighborhoods.”

The waste crisis erupted when the Naameh landfill, Lebanon's largest, closed in mid-July.

It sparked demonstrations because rubbish piled up in the streets of the capital and Mount Lebanon. The protests have grown into a wider protest movement against an entire political class seen as corrupt and dysfunctional.

As for power, it is rationed, including in Beirut where many businesses and apartment blocks use generators to tide them over during lengthy blackouts.

The problem runs far back. An outdated electricity grid and lack of reform after the bloody civil war has left supply lagging way behind rising demand.

G.K.

D.A.