BEIRUT: The Cabinet can meet and make decisions as long as two thirds of its 24 members are secured, Speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday, dispelling fears of disruption by the ministers of MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and their allies.
He also said that the contentious issue of military and security appointments is likely to be brought up during the Cabinet session scheduled for Thursday.
Asked about the fate of the Cabinet session amid the lingering rift over security appointments, Berri was quoted as saying by visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence: “As long as the two-third ministerial majority is secured, the session will be held and will make decisions as stipulated by the Constitution. [Decisions] that require two thirds [of the 24 ministers] to be approved will be voted on by two thirds. [Decisions] that require half [of the ministers] plus one will be voted by an absolute majority.”
Berri added that decrees on Cabinet decisions did not need the signature of all the ministers.
“There is a possibility for the appointments’ issue to be raised at Thursday’s session,” he said. “The session will then take its constitutional course. If some [ministers] withdraw, the session will go on as long as the constitutional quorum for convening it is secured.”
Berri said that after the opening of an extraordinary legislative session, he would call Parliament to meet to act on draft laws. “I am adamant on holding legislative sessions because the situation in the country is no longer bearable,” he said.
The speaker’s remarks came a day after Prime Minister Tammam Salam called the Cabinet to meet Thursday, ending three weeks of paralysis caused by disagreements over the appointment of senior military and security officers.
However, Salam’s decision did not herald an agreement on the thorny issue, as the FPM’s ministers insisted that they would not allow the Cabinet to discuss any topic before it addresses appointments of new security chiefs, including the appointment of Aoun’s son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Regiment, as Army commander.
The FPM’s two ministers are backed by their allies in Hezbollah, theTashnag Party and the Marada Movement. The four groups have six ministers in the 24-member national unity government.
Speaking at an iftar Tuesday night, Salam called on the rival parties to act with a sense of responsibility by putting aside divisive issues and addressing the people’s interests away from “obstruction and paralysis.”
“There are many extremely important and vital issues waiting for us,” he said.
Ministerial sources said they expected the Cabinet session to be calm and short.
Salam will open the session with a comprehensive review of the crisis amid the current grave conditions in the region, while stressing the need for solidarity in these difficult circumstances through which Lebanon and the region are passing, the sources said.
Salam will propose from outside the agenda opening an extraordinary parliamentary session to approve draft laws concerning billions of dollars in loans to Lebanon, the sources said.
MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM warned of what he termed “a legal and constitutional violation” if the issue of security and military appointments was not included on the Cabinet agenda.
“We announce our commitment to our position. The [ministers] of the Change and Reform bloc will attend the Cabinet session and the bloc will exercise its right to debate. Unless the first item is the security appointments, no other topic will be discussed,” Kanaan said after a weekly meeting of the parliamentary Change and Reform bloc chaired by Aoun.
The parliamentary Future bloc praised Salam’s decision to call the Cabinet to meet and renewed its demand for the quick election of a president. The bloc implicitly blasted the FPM, blaming it for the obstruction of the Cabinet’s work.
“The bloc supports Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s decision to resume the Cabinet’s work following a deliberate and planned obstruction exercised by political parties, whose position has harmed the interests of Lebanese citizens and linked them to personal goals and family interests,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
Meanwhile, the Future Movement and Hezbollah will hold a new round of talks Thursday amid fresh tension caused by the two sides trading accusations over who was to blame for leaking the videos that showed police officers torturing Islamist inmates in Roumieh Prison, officials said Tuesday.
“Thursday’s dialogue session will tackle the Cabinet crisis, the presidential election deadlock and also Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi’s accusations against Hezbollah over the torture videos,” a senior March 8 source told The Daily Star.
MP Samir Jisr, one of three senior Future officials attending the dialogue sessions, said the talks would focus primarily on defusing tensions in the wake of a new war of words between the two sides sparked by the accusations over the torture videos.
Asked what the expectations are for Thursday’s meeting amid a new strain in ties between the two rival parties, Jisr told The Daily Star: “We have overcome more serious problems in past dialogue sessions. So, Thursday’s session will not be an exception.”
Thursday’s will be the 14th round of dialogue between senior officials from the Future Movement and Hezbollah.
Last week, Rifi accused Hezbollah of leaking the torture videos. Hezbollah dismissed the accusations as “baseless” and instead blamed Rifi for leaking the videos.