Hasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam is taking a wait-and-see stance before calling for a Cabinet session, pending the outcome of ongoing consultations to resolve a rift over military promotions, seen as the key to getting the stalled government functioning, sources close to the premier said Friday. Salam, who returned to Beirut Thursday from a weeklong trip to New York where he addressed the U.N. General Assembly, met Friday with a number of ministers to discuss the results of contacts over the issue of military promotions, a major demand of MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement that is facing opposition from at least eight ministers.
If an accord among ministers is reached on the promotions of senior Army officers, Salam will immediately call for a Cabinet session to approve them and agree on a decision-making mechanism and set the stage for reviving Parliament legislation, the sources said.
Salam, according to the sources, was annoyed with the obstruction of the draft agreement on military promotions which was reported to have been reached during a meeting held in Parliament last week on the sidelines of a national dialogue session.
That meeting was attended by Speaker Nabih Berri, Salam, Aoun, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, MP Walid Jumblatt and MP Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s bloc in Parliament.
The deal calls for the promotion of three senior Army officers, including Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, Aoun’s son-in-law, to the rank of major general, in exchange for an agreement on the Cabinet’s decision-making system and the resumption of Parliament sessions after Berri agreed to include an electoral draft law and a bill on allowing foreigners of Lebanese origins to obtain their nationality on the agenda.
The sources expressed resentment over the current Cabinet situation due to the “garbage policy.” But the sources said the Cabinet’s resignation is out of the question “because it is forbidden for the government of ‘national interest’ to step down.”
Parliamentary sources familiar with the military promotions issue said that meetings have been held between government officials and Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi in a bid to allay his concerns over the promotions and set the stage for the Cabinet to approve them.
The sources expressed the belief that the deal over military promotions would eventually be implemented and that a Cabinet session would be held before Oct. 15, when Roukoz goes on retirement.
According to the sources, opposition to the military promotions by former President Michel Sleiman, “along with his three ministers, both of whom have no parliamentary, political or popular weight,” would not be able to stand in the face of an agreement backed by Aoun, the Future Movement, Jumblatt, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement. The sources said opposition to the military promotions by the three Kataeb ministers and the two independent ministers, Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb and Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon, came in the context of political outbiddings.
If consensus is not reached over the military promotions, it would be approved by voting with a majority of half of the 24-member Cabinet plus one, which is secured.
If the Cabinet meets and approves the military promotions, the other topics on the agenda, most importantly an agreement on the government’s decision-making system and restoration of Parliament legislation, will be at the top of items to be implemented later, the sources said.
However, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige ruled out the Cabinet’s approval of military promotions in light of opposition voiced by the “Consultative Gathering,” a group headed by Sleiman and includes three ministers loyal to him, the three Kataeb Party ministers, Harb and Pharaon.
“It appears to be difficult to approve a compromise [over military promotions] being promoted in light of the Consultative Gathering’s position which conformed with the position of other ministers,” Joreige, one of the three Kataeb ministers, told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
“Should this matter [military promotions] be presented to the Cabinet, there are eight ministers who oppose it, in addition to [Justice] Minister Ashraf Rifi and other ministers,” he added.
Joreige said opposition to the military promotions emanated from “keenness on the military establishment and the need to avoid getting it involved in political polarization.”
The Cabinet has been paralyzed for months by sharp differences over its decision-making formula in the absence of the president and the contentious issue of military and security appointments, a key demand of the FPM’s ministers. In August, the ministers of the FPM and Hezbollah boycotted a Cabinet session over these issues.
