Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: A new round of national dialogue to be held Tuesday will likely be eclipsed by the ongoing trash crisis and the reverberations of an unprecedented delay in payment of overdue salaries to military and security personnel, something that did not happen even during the 1975-90 Civil War.

November wages for the Army, Internal Security Forces and civil servants, which were due last week, were paid Monday in an exceptional measure after having been delayed by the Cabinet’s and Parliament’s inability to convene to pass a decree needed to transfer the funds.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam, meanwhile, vowed to stay in office, dismissing earlier reports that he would step down if Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb’s plan to resolve the nearly 4-month-old trash crisis was not implemented soon.

Salam, whose government has been riven by sharp differences that have hindered its productivity and now prevented it even from meeting, acknowledged the executive body’s failure to find solutions to accumulated problems.

“The state has been negligent in many fields. However, despite this, we will not stop our efforts. For my part, I say with objectivity and modesty, I will continue to shoulder my responsibilities, be they in the premiership or outside it,” Salam said during a ceremony at the Grand Serail to distribute prizes of scientific distinction offered by the National Council for Scientific Research.

While Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil worked with Salam and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel to solve the wage problem with an exceptional measure that sidestepped normal legislative channels, the Army Command expressed resentment over the delay, hoping this precedent would not recur in what appeared to be a veiled warning to politicians.

“This situation is totally unacceptable,” Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi told Reuters in a telephone interview before the temporary solution was announced. He urged rival Lebanese politicians to “take care of Lebanon and take care of the Army. The Army is salvation,” he added. “This is unprecedented. It did not happen even during the [Civil] War. Never before have salaries been delayed,” Kahwagi said.

The Army Command later issued a statement warning against undermining the rights of the military under any circumstances, saying the delay in payment of salaries should not happen again.

“What happened [the delay in paying salaries] will not affect the morale of soldiers, undermine their confidence in the state, or weaken their determination to carry on with their missions and duties, especially since all the Lebanese are putting their full confidence in the Army and are betting on its salvation role in protecting the homeland from enormous dangers and challenges,” the military command said in a statement.

“Being aware of the size of sacrifices made by the soldiers and the daily life difficulties they are facing, the Army Command affirms its adherence to their dignity and their material rights, either through the payment of salaries and social aid on time, or through retaining these rights in the proposed salary scale hike bill,” it said. “The morale of the soldiers and the livelihood of their family members are top priorities of the command which will not allow [these rights] to be undermined under any circumstances.”

Calling on rival parties not to involve the Army in “narrow political differences and conflicts,” the statement said: “The Army Command … hopes this precedent will not recur and that officials concerned will act to avoid it before it happens.”

The solution to the salary problem was announced by the finance minister following his meeting with Moqbel and Kahwagi held at the Defense Ministry in Yarze. “I would like to announce in the presence of the defense minister and the Army commander that the problem over payment of salaries of the Army and some security forces and public departments in the country has been solved,” Khalil, flanked by Moqbel and Kahwagi, told reporters.

He said the solution was based on legal advice and followed extraordinary efforts exerted by Speaker Nabih Berri and Salam. “We have reached an extraordinary legal solution to transfer the money from reserves. This extraordinary measure should remain in an extraordinary status until a Cabinet decree [approving the funds] is issued as soon as possible,” Khalil said.

Meanwhile, the Kataeb Party said it would continue its boycott of national dialogue sessions as long as the trash crisis was not resolved and the government was dysfunctional. “We can on what is left of political authority in Lebanon represented in the Cabinet, to begin removing the garbage from the streets as soon as possible,” said a statement issued after the weekly meeting of the party’s political bureau chaired by party leader MP Sami Gemayel.

Tuesday’s will be the ninth dialogue session held by rival leaders since Berri launched the all-party talks in September with the aim of reaching agreement on the election of a president and ending paralysis in Parliament and Cabinet. With the 17-month presidential crisis being the first item on the agenda, the leaders are expected to resume talks on the characteristics of a head of state.

Following the dialogue session, Parliament’s Secretariat is scheduled to meet in an attempt to agree on the agenda of a legislative session intended to approve urgent draft laws, including the World Bank’s $600 million soft loans.

At last week’s meeting, members of Parliament’s Secretariat, agreed during a meeting chaired by Berri on listing 19 draft laws, mostly linked to the state’s finances and loans, on the agenda that excluded a new electoral law and the public sector’s salary hike proposal.

However, the 19 draft laws included a bill that would grant foreigners of Lebanese origin Lebanese citizenship. The Kataeb Party has said it will not attend any legislative session before the election of a president.