Contacts with Aoun to Resolve Cabinet Crisis Frozen

No contacts have been made yet with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to limit the sharp differences between his ministers and Premier Najib Miqati over the appointments of civil servants that led to the suspension of cabinet sessions, An Nahar daily reported Friday.

The newspaper said that Aoun’s son-in-law, Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, did not discuss the issue with Miqati on Thursday after he attended a ministerial committee meeting to discuss the leasing of power-generating vessels.

Mediators between Aoun and Miqati haven’t also made any steps to resolve the dispute.

Bassil denied in remarks to An Nahar that his party was behind the suspension of the cabinet sessions. “We will attend the sessions whenever we are invited to do so.”

The minister made his remarks following talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

He told the daily that he informed al-Rahi about “what really happened” at the cabinet, saying that the differences between the two sides were “not that simple.”

“The prime minister imposed on us a new constitutional novelty and gave us the choice of erosion of our authorities or the suspension of the government’s work,” Bassil said.

The minister’s allegations came after Miqati accused ministers loyal to Aoun without naming them of obstructing the cabinet’s work by refusing to accept the names of candidates proposed by him.

But Miqati stressed that he won’t allow anyone to undermine his prerogatives.