Hasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Ministers traded barbs Thursday during a Cabinet session that failed to address any of the country’s pressing issues, as Defense Minister Samir Moqbel warned that government paralysis could ultimately deprive the Army of even its most basic needs.
The government session, which lasted less than three hours, saw a heated argument over security appointments, with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, both of the Free Patriotic Movement, on one side, and March 14 ministers on the other.
The meeting came a day after the FPM organized protests in several parts of the country against Moqbel’s decision to postpone the retirement of Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi, Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Walid Salman, and Maj. Gen. Mohammad Kheir, secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council.
Bou Saab and Bassil refused to discuss any item on the agenda before new security appointments were made, despite Moqbel’s decision last week to extend the incumbent officers’ terms by more than a year.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam brought up the allocation of funds to pay the salaries of public sector employees and proposed providing the Environment Ministry with an advance treasury payment to remove garbage from the streets.
Ministerial sources said that both Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk responded to Bassil, who complained that the political weight of the FPM was being ignored inside the Cabinet and reiterated the FPM’s opposition to the term extensions.
Aoun, a presidential candidate, has been lobbying for his son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, head of the Army Commando Unit, to be appointed as the new Army commander. Machnouk said there were three Cabinet groups against the appointment of Roukoz to the post of Army commander and the election of Aoun to the presidency.
He did not name the parties, but ministerial sources said they were the Future Movement, the Kataeb Party, and the Progressive Socialist Party.
The sources said that if Machnouk’s comments reflected those of the Future Movement, it meant that the party’s position had changed, as it previously denied that it had decided to veto any of the presidential candidates.
Addressing Bassil and Bou Saab, Machnouk said that Salam’s government was transitional, and could not decide on issues related to the National Pact. “Do you live on another planet? We are discussing how to keep Lebanon [alive] amid dangers threatening its existence, and you make futile [arguments] and raise demands at an inappropriate time and place,” Machnouk said, in quotes carried by the Central News Agency. Machnouk said that the most the Cabinet could do during the presidential interregnum was to address the pressing needs of the people until the instability threatening the region subsided.
“You all know that the security appointments are a controversial issue that cannot be settled inside the Cabinet. So why do you put it as an obstacle [to the Cabinet’s work]?” Machnouk asked.
He also stressed that the Future Movement was battling extremism, responding to FPM slogans at Wednesday’s protests which equated the Future Movement to ISIS.
Moqbel warned the public after the session of the damage the Army could suffer if the paralysis continues.
“Amid the Cabinet’s paralysis, and its inability to make decisions at every session, I have to tell people about the damage the Army will suffer from [the government’s inability to secure] financial allocations to pay salaries and buy food supplies for soldiers who are defending Lebanon against every security challenge.”
Moqbel said that he supported making the security appointments, but said he had to resort to the extensions after Cabinet failed to agree on successors to the current officers.
Moqbel justified his controversial decision to postpone the retirements of Kahwagi, Salman and Kheir simultaneously by saying the move served to end the military debate being played out by politicians and the media.
A fierce argument also broke out during the session between Bou Saab and Telecommunications Minister Butrous Harb.
Bou Saab hinted that Harb occupied political posts during the period when Lebanon was under Syrian tutelage, from 1990 to 2005.
Harb announced after the meeting that he would abstain from attending Cabinet sessions until the body returned to being a “real executive authority” that was responsible for decision making.
Salam did not schedule another session for next week.
Speaking to the media at the end of the meeting, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said that the session concluded without any decisions being made, and amounted to little more than ministers “giving their opinions” on political issues.
At the start of the session, Salam said the government continued to strive to find solutions to the garbage crisis, debate on which is “unfortunately taking on a sectarian nature.”
“This is a national issue par excellence, and a solution can only be reached through national action in which all parties participate,” Salam said.
But he acknowledged that a solution to the waste crisis could remain “elusive as long as the political climate remains as is.”
Shortly after the session, Bassil said in a news conference that FPM ministers took part in the Cabinet session to make two points. “First, that the government had unanimously made a violation by remaining silent on the legal and constitutional violation made by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel. Our demand for security appointments to be made is still on the table.”
Bassil also said that his group wanted to deliver a message that in the absence of a president, Christian ministers would assume some of his powers, and thus no Cabinet decision could be made without the FPM’s approval.
Elsewhere, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri discussed Lebanon’s stability with PSP leader Walid Jumblatt, according to statement released by his office Thursday.