Hasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The Future Movement is considering visiting March 8 officials to discuss a means to end the Cabinet impasse and protect the northeastern town of Arsal from militants, a Future lawmaker said Thursday.
“It is one of the options we are studying but a final decision has yet to be made,” MP Jamal Jarrah told The Daily Star.
He explained that the Future delegation might hold talks with officials from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party.
In the past weeks, a delegation from the group visited Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, MP Walid Jumblatt, former President Amine Gemayel, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Army chief Gen. Jean Kahwagi.
During the visits, the Future Movement officials highlighted the dangers of ongoing Cabinet paralysis and the fact that the Lebanese Army should be the sole authority protecting Arsal from militant groups.
Hezbollah has been battling Nusra Front and ISIS militants on Arsal’s outskirts over the past two weeks.
Backed by their allies Hezbollah, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party, FPM ministers have said 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 Unit, as Army commander.
Aoun hinted that his group would resort to popular protests to pressure the government to fulfill his party’s demands.
Jarrah said that the Future Movement was highlighting the responsibility of Lebanese leaders toward Arsal and pressing Cabinet decisions.
“The agricultural produce will be totally damaged if the government does not allocate funds for exporting it by sea,” Jarrah said.
Meanwhile, sources close to Salam said the Cabinet would not hold its weekly session next Thursday for the third consecutive week.
The sources said reports that the Cabinet would not convene at all during the holy month of Ramadan were “not accurate.”
They added that Salam was still making contacts with all political factions to find a way out of the crisis. Similarly, Berri and a number of ministers were communicating with all Cabinet parties to reach an agreement to allow Cabinet to resume its sessions.
But the sources said there were no signs so far that the FPM would soften its stance.
They added that a proposal to put the issue of security appointments aside until September was being considered. The terms of Kahwagi and a number of senior Army officers will expire in September. But FPM ministers still insist on discussing the topic of appointments before moving to any other agenda issues.
The sources added that although the Constitution clearly states that the premier sets the date for the Cabinet session and decides its agenda, Salam did not want to exacerbate internal disputes amid the exceptional circumstances the country was facing and in the absence of a president.
Salam also feared that such a step could be exploited by Lebanon’s enemies to shake the stable security situation, the sources said, but added that the premier could not wait forever.
Ministerial sources said that contacts were now focusing on finding a solution that would be face-saving for FPM minsters and allow Salam to call for a Cabinet session.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said that street pressure the FPM was threatening to resort to would lead nowhere.
“It will not reach the Cabinet or affect its decisions. I don’t think that there is a political decision that is made under street pressure,” Machnouk said after visiting Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian.
Machnouk said Salam would call for a Cabinet session after meeting with political factions. “The prime minister determines the date, this issue has to do with his powers,” he said. “He is able to balance between his national duties to try to convince all political parties to participate [in the Cabinet session] and his constitutional powers which require that he calls for a Cabinet session.”
The minister said there was still a chance for negotiations “but it will not remain forever.”