Parliament Bureau postpones decision on legislative session as FPM declares boycott

The Parliament Bureau on Monday postponed taking a decision regarding a controversial legislative session that Speaker Nabih Berri had intended to call for, as the Free Patriotic Movement declared its boycott of any such session.

"The discussions will be continued next Monday," Parliament Secretary-General Adnan Daher said after a meeting for the Parliament Bureau on Monday.

MTV had earlier reported that MP Alain Aoun of the FPM would inform the Bureau that the Strong Lebanon bloc will not take part in the legislative session.

The legislative session's agenda includes 81 articles, most notably the capital control law and the extension of the terms of directors general and security chiefs, topped by General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, who reaches the age of retirement next month.

FPM chief Jebran Bassil had told al-Akhbar newspaper that the Strong Lebanon bloc “certainly will not take part” in the session, noting that “what applies to the caretaker cabinet amid the presidential void also applies to parliament, which is considered an electoral body except for emergency and utmost necessity situations.”

The FPM’s boycott and the Lebanese Forces’ rejection mean that the session will not be attended by the country’s biggest two Christian blocs, which might push Berri to refrain from calling for the session.

Forty-six MPs – the LF bloc, the Kataeb bloc, the Change bloc and independents – had on Saturday declared their boycott of the session, vowing to file appeals against its resolutions.

Al-Akhbar meanwhile reported that a meeting will be held Tuesday at MP Nabil Bader’s residence and will be attended by the MPs Bilal Hshaimi, Mohammed Suleiman, Imad al-Hout, Abdul Aziz al-Samad, Ahmed al-Kheir and Walid al-Baarini. The conferees will mull their participation in the session.

The Tashnag Party will also hold a meeting to discuss its possible participation.

Political sources meanwhile told al-Akhbar that “contacts are ongoing to introduce agenda amendments that would meet the conditions that the blocs are putting, especially the FPM, in a bid to convince them to participate.”