Hasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Cabinet is set to hold a stormy session Thursday amid sharp differences among ministers over the issue of security appointments and how to deal with jihadis based on the outskirts of the Bekaa Valley town of Arsal.
However, the split over the situation in Arsal and security appointments is unlikely to lead to the collapse of the Cabinet at this stage, largely because the main parties making up the government are anxious to keep it in place in view of the yearlong vacuum in the presidency.
During a Cabinet session Wednesday designed to continue discussion on the 2015 draft budget, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil brought up the issue of security appointments and Islamist militants holed up in rugged caves on Arsal’s outskirts.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam responded by saying that the Arsal issue would be discussed at Thursday’s Cabinet session, while the security appointments fall within the prerogatives of Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk who will bring it up at the right time.
During last week’s Cabinet session, ministers from Hezbollah and MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement demanded that the Lebanese Army take action to oust ISIS and Nusra Front militants entrenched on the outskirts of Arsal.
This demand has been repeated separately by Aoun and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, who pledged to liberate Arsal’s outskirts from the militants if the Lebanese state fails to do so.
Ministers who attended Wednesday’s session agreed that Thursday’s Cabinet meeting would be a heated one given the divisive issues that would be brought up for discussion.
Minister for the Displaced Alice Shabtini, loyal to former President Michel Sleiman, said that in the face of demands to debate the issue of Arsal, she will seek discussion of Hezbollah’s fighting against jihadis in Syria’s Qalamoun region.
Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, from Hezbollah’s bloc, said he expected the Cabinet discussions to be heated. “There is a group of ministers who want to cover up the occupation of Lebanese territory and is raising the fighting in Qalamoun,” he told reporters.
Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb said he would raise the issue of the yearlong presidential election crisis.
Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi described Thursday’s session as “a nagging session,” saying he would propose referring the case of former Minister Michel Samaha to the Judicial Council. Samaha was sentenced by the Military Tribunal earlier this month to four and a half years in jail for involvement in a terror plot to destabilize the country.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, from the FPM, told reporters after emerging from the meeting: “There is no prior decision on the divisive issues to be brought up tomorrow. There are no limits to where we can go and there are no limits to what might happen. We will discuss, and depending on the outcome of discussions, we will decide the position to be taken.”
Aoun staunchly opposes government attempts to extend the terms of Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi, who retires on Sept. 23, and Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous, who retires on June 5. Aoun is campaigning for his son-in-law, Brig. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Unit, to replace Kahwagi as Army commander.With regard to security appointments, several ministers said Machnouk might propose the names of three senior officers for the post of ISF chief if his contacts with political leaders lead to a consensus on a successor to Basbous, or else he would postpone it to the next Cabinet session before June 5.
Machnouk, who last week discussed the issue of security appointments with Aoun, met Speaker Nabih Berri Wednesday for the same purpose. “We discussed all issues. The issue of the Army, security, the border [with Syria] and the Arab situation everywhere,” Machnouk told reporters after the meeting at Berri’s residence. He refused to answer “detailed questions,” saying he would announce his final position on these issues at the right time and place.
Machnouk said consultations were ongoing over the security appointments, adding that the Cabinet would hold two sessions before the expiry of Basbous’ term on June 5.
Despite signs of heated discussions over the contentious issues, the stances of the main political blocs do not indicate that the Cabinet is headed for collapse during Thursday’s session.
In the absence of a compromise over the security appointments and the lack of an agreement within the Cabinet on how to deal with the situation on Arsal’s outskirts, the majority of ministers see that the Lebanese Army is doing its job by preventing the militants’ infiltration into Lebanese towns.
Meanwhile, Berri renewed calls for fast the election of a president. According to lawmakers who met him at his Ain al-Tineh residence, Berri lamented “the obstruction of legislation and Parliament’s inability to hold legislative sessions to study and approve a series of important bills. He asked, “Is the obstruction of institutions the road that leads to the election of a president?”
