BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Monday implicitly backed premier Tammam Salam’s bid to change the government’s decision-making mechanism, currently at the center of a widening row that has thrown the Cabinet into paralysis and prevented it from meeting for the second consecutive week.
Hariri also warned that the failure to elect a new president would not only affect the presidency seat, but also the country as a whole, while Speaker Nabih Berri decried that the vacuum has now spread to the other branches of power, the Cabinet and Parliament.
Hariri met Salam, with whom he discussed, among other things, the crisis arising from the dispute among ministers over a mechanism to govern the Cabinet’s decisions during the 9-month-old presidential vacuum.
Hariri did not speak to reporters after the meeting, which was held at the Grand Serail.
“The meeting was positive and fruitful and viewpoints between Hariri and Salam were identical on all issues discussed and ways to tackle them,” sources said, adding that the conflicting viewpoints among the key parties making up the 24-member Cabinet have made the search for a new decision-making system, as demanded by Salam, a big crisis that needs time to be resolved.
Ministerial sources who met Salam following his talks with Hariri said there would be no Cabinet sessions for now.
Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon told reporters after meeting Salam that the premier was consulting with all the parties in an attempt to reach a solution to the crisis, which he described as “a Cabinet crisis” rather than a rift over the decision-making mechanism.
Salam, backed by most ministers, is demanding a change in the current mechanism, which requires unanimous support from all 24 ministers on the Cabinet decisions. He argued that the mechanism has hindered the government’s productivity due to disagreement among ministers on decisions taken by the Cabinet.
In the face of Salam’s insistence on amending the decision-making system, seven Christian ministers and a Muslim minister, who met at former President Michel Sleiman’s residence in Yarze last week, oppose the change, saying the Cabinet should serve in a caretaker capacity until a new president is elected.Hariri also met at his Downtown Beirut residence with Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel with whom he discussed the presidential deadlock.
Hariri warned of the dire consequences resulting from the continued vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.
“We are facing a vast project to paralyze the state and its institutions. The failure to elect a president affects the whole country and not only the presidency, because a country without a head will not move on the right track,” Hariri told a delegation from the Beirut National Gathering that visited him at his Beirut Downtown residence. The group includes a number of Future lawmakers and former MPs.
Referring to the Future Movement’s dialogue with Hezbollah, he said: “We are trying to achieve stability through dialogue and consultations, but without a president there is no institution that brings the Lebanese together and tries to manage their affairs. This is the role of the presidency and this confirms the need to elect a president. Our attention today is focused on filling the vacuum that is affecting everyone, especially Beirut, which is the center of decision-making and economy.”
“If stability is achieved, Beirut would be the first to prosper and flourish. We see the fires, wars and killings surrounding us and we are exerting all possible efforts to prevent these fires from reaching our country and to maintain security and stability in it.”
He said when he decided to join a government with Hezbollah the moment he walked out of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s opening session, “it was for the country’s sake and because, God willing, justice will come sooner or later.”
Hariri later visited the grave of his slain father, former Premier Rafik Hariri, on Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, where he prayed for his soul and the souls of the other martyrs.
Meanwhile, Berri expressed his frustration with the paralysis crippling the presidency, Parliament and the Cabinet. “It is delusional to think that vacuum was only confined to the presidency. In fact, all posts have become vacant and paralyzed,” Berri said during a meeting with the new board of the Press Federation led by its chairman Aouni al-Kaaki.
“Parliament is paralyzed. Isn’t the Cabinet also paralyzed?” he said, referring to the suspension of Cabinet sessions until a new decision-making system is reached.
Slamming the Cabinet’s current system, which allows any one of the 24 ministers to veto a decision, Berri said that Lebanon now has “24 presidents, 24 prime ministers and 24 ministers.”
Berri stressed the election of a president was a top priority for all the Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims. He said the presidential issue would be discussed by the Future Movement and Hezbollah during their seventh round of talks after defusing Sunni-Shiite tension.
Berri said he was ready to support any agreement on the presidential election reached by the top Christian leaders.
For his part, Gemayel said priority should be given to the election of a president in order to strengthen national unity.
“Our priority is the election of a president. The election of the president is primarily to boost national unity, the spirit of the National Pact [on power sharing] and the functioning of institutions,” Gemayel told reporters after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Bkirki, north of Beirut.