Report: Security Appointments Will Top Agenda of Next Cabinet Session
The Mustaqbal Movement has agreed to a proposal by the Free Patriotic Movement for the implementation of the national defense law, which covers security appointments, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Monday.
This will therefore allow the contentious issue of security appointments to top the agenda of cabinet's next session.
The meeting will be scheduled upon Prime Minister Tammam Salam's return to Beirut from New York where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
Ministerial sources told the daily that the Mustaqbal Movement “succeeded in reaching a settlement with its rivals over the security appointments as part of a package deal that would revitalize cabinet and parliament's work.”
Ministers representing Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun have been boycotting cabinet sessions over their insistence to agree on a working mechanism for the government in the absence of a president and the promotion of army officers.
Their boycott has paralyzed the cabinet, adding to the country's woes, which started with the vacuum at Baabda Palace following the end of President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure in May 2014.
Parliament has also been paralyzed. The last time it met was when MPs extended their own term in November.
Change and Reform totally rejects the extension of the terms of top military and security officials, calling for the appointment of new figures instead.
It is also backing the promotion of army officers to keep Commando Regiment chief Chamel Roukoz in the military and make him eligible to become army commander because differences among rival parties are hindering new appointments in the absence of a president.
Roukoz is Aoun's son-in-law.
M.T.
D.A.
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