Hasan LakkisHussein Dakroub| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The Cabinet meets Thursday in the absence of any consensus over the thorny issues of the decision-making system and the appointment of military and security chiefs, ministerial sources said Wednesday, stoking fears of an indefinite postponement of sessions to avert a new clash with MP Michel Aoun.

A source close to Prime Minister Tammam Salam said the Cabinet session would be held as scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday, ruling out a new postponement. “The prime minister will speak about developments in the garbage crisis as well the country’s financial problems,” the source told The Daily Star Wednesday night.

Salam will warn that Lebanon might lose hundreds of million dollars in grants from donor countries “because the government cannot work and cannot issue the required decrees, while Parliament is unable to meet [to approve these grants],” the source said.

The premier will later open the debate over the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism, allowing all the ministers to air their views on it, the source added. Asked whether Salam would adjourn the session without setting a date for a new meeting, the source said: “Such a decision hinges on how discussions will go during Thursday’s session.”

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Fneish, whose Hezbollah party is backing the Free Patriotic Movement ministers’ demands on the Cabinet’s decision-making formula, signaled difficulties during Thursday’s session.

“There has been no change in the parties’ stances on the [decision-making] mechanism,” Fneish told The Daily Star. He said it was up to Salam to postpone the session again as he did with Tuesday’s meeting.

March 14 ministerial sources said each side would be allowed to air its views, even though there has been no change in the rival parties’ conflicting positions on the decision-making system and the issue of security and military appointments.

But March 14 ministers will insist on not allowing any of the government’s parties to obstruct the Cabinet’s work or to propose a decision-making mechanism that runs contrary to the Constitution and laws in force, the sources said.

Sources close to Salam said he was open to all proposals and ready to study the ministers’ demands for resuming the Cabinet’s work and acting on the citizens’ socio-economic problems provided that these demands do not contradict his prerogatives or aim to hinder the government’s job.

Salam has postponed a key Cabinet session, originally set for Tuesday, until Thursday, apparently to give time for further consultations to reach a deal with the FPM ministers over the decision-making formula.

The session is devoted mainly to discussing a mechanism under which the Cabinet can make decisions and exercise executive powers in light of the vacuum in the presidency.

The FPM’s two ministers, backed by allied ministers of Hezbollah, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party, have been pushing for a formula that would prevent the Cabinet from passing any decrees without unanimous support. Salam has rejected such a demand, saying it could allow any party to easily hinder the Cabinet’s work.

“What we are demanding is constitutional and legal and we will not back down. The prime minister is free in taking the decisions he deems fit,” a number of FPM MPs said.

Barring a surprise development like the shouting match that erupted between Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil during the July 9 Cabinet session, March 14 ministerial sources expected Thursday’s discussions to be calm and Salam to adjourn the session without setting a date for a new meeting.

According to the sources, Salam’s resignation has been entirely ruled out because the premier has been informed by all political parties participating in the government that they rejected this option.

Therefore, the only choice left for Salam is to refrain from calling for Cabinet sessions, while continuing to exercise his prerogatives as prime minister by meeting at the Grand Serail with ministers, lawmakers and politicians, the sources said.The sources did not discount the possibility of Salam calling for a Cabinet session on Aug, 6, a day before Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Walid Salman retires, to discuss the appointment of a new military chief of staff as demanded by the FPM’s ministers. If no agreement is reached within the Cabinet on the appointment of a new military chief of staff as is widely expected, Salman’s term will be extended, the sources said.

The same sources said political and government circles would wait to see how the FPM would react to the extension of Salman’s term and whether it would protest the move in the street with all the implications entailed.

Aoun, who strongly opposes extending the terms of military and security chiefs, is lobbying for his son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, head of the Army Commando Unit, to be appointed as new Army commander.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri, who has so far declined to comment on the ongoing row over the government’s decision-making system, called for boosting the work of state institutions instead of obstructing it.

“The [state] institutions must assume their responsibilities and take appropriate decisions on all issues to serve the public interest,” MPs quoted Berri as saying during his weekly meeting with MPs at his Ain al-Tineh residence.

Referring to the nuclear deal reached earlier this month between Iran and six world powers in Vienna, Berri said: “Lebanon and the region, following the Iranian nuclear agreement, are going through an extraordinary and historic transitional stage. What is required is to deal with foresight and wisdom to protect the country and pass this stage.”