Hussein DakroubHasan Lakkis| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The defense minister Wednesday night extended the terms of the Army commander, chief of staff and head of the Higher Defence Council for more than one year each, political sources said, in a move likely to draw the ire of MP Michel Aoun, who has been pressing the government to appoint new military and security chiefs.

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel’s decision extended the terms of Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi, military Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Walid Salman and Higher Defence Council chief Gen.Mohammad Kheir until Sept. 30, 2016, a political source told The Daily Star.

Salman was due to retire Friday and Kahwagi’s term ends on Sept. 23. Meanwhile, intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Edmond Fadel, who retires on Sept. 20, will be recalled for duty as a reserve officer due to a lack of consensus in the Cabinet over naming a new Army Intelligence chief.

The Defense Ministry will issue a formal announcement on the extensions Thursday shortly before Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Speaker Nabih Berri and Moqbel fly to Egypt to attend the inauguration of a new Suez Canal.

Moqbel’s decision came following a Cabinet session that failed to resolve the long-simmering issues of the decision-making system and the military and security appointments.

It also came despite intensive efforts by the rival factions to reach a package deal involving the Cabinet’s decision-making system, security and military appointments and the revival of Parliament legislation.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab from Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement rejected Moqbel’s decision, saying it ran contrary to the law.

“This decision was outside the Cabinet’s discussions. The defense minister unilaterally took it and it is against the law,” Bou Saab told The Daily Star late Wednesday, speaking by telephone from Paris. He added that Moqbel should bear responsibility for this decision.

Although the session was originally devoted to resuming deliberations on the decision-making system, the Cabinet meeting was dominated by the garbage crisis and the appointment of military and security chiefs.

The Cabinet discussions signaled that intensive contacts were underway among the key political parties participating in the government, particularly the FPM, Hezbollah, the Future Movement and the Amal Movement to reach a political agreement on the security appointments, the decision-making mechanism and the resumption of Parliament legislation, ministerial sources said.

Holding legislative sessions requires a Cabinet decision to open an extraordinary parliamentary session.

Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi said the talk about a full package deal over the security appointments, the government’s decision-making mechanism and reviving Parliament’s legislative role was part of “attempts to pre-empt the security appointments.” Speaking in an interview with MTV Wednesday night, Azzi, one of three ministers representing the Kataeb Party, decried that the reported deal made no mention of the need to elect a president.

Contrary to expectations, Moqbel proposed during the session several names to fill key posts in the Army Command, the Army chief of staff and the secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council, instead of merely proposing three names for the post of Army chief of staff.

The defense minister insists that security appointments fall within his prerogatives during the 14-month-old presidential vacuum.

However, the extension of the military chiefs’ terms could spark opposition by the FPM’s ministers and street protests by the group’s supporters.

Aoun has threatened to paralyze the Cabinet if it does not act to appoint new military and security chiefs.

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 Army commander.

Salam promised during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting that the prolonged trash crisis will end within a few days.

“The prime minister stressed that phased solutions will crystallize within two to three days regarding the trash problem,” Information Minister Ramzi Joreige told reporters after the meeting.

On the issue of military and security appointments, Joreige said Salam hoped “to reach a workable way out to avoid paralysis so the Cabinet can address pressing issues and make decisions.”

Joreige said ministers of the FPM and Hezbollah had demand extra time to give way to reach consensus over the appointments’ issue.

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

The statement said the Cabinet would meet again on Aug. 13.

Meanwhile, senior officials from the Future Movement and Hezbollah held a new round of talks at Berri’s Ain al-Tineh Wednesday night as part of their attempts to defuse sectarian and political tensions exacerbated by the 4-year-old war in Syria.

“The participants discussed proposals for solutions being floated to the political crisis through which the country is passing and a number of socio-economic files that concern the citizens,” said a terse statement issued after the meeting.

Wednesday’s was the 16th dialogue session held by the two rival and influential parties in the past 17 months.

Also Wednesday, the Council of Maronite Bishops reiterated its concerns over the 14-month presidential vacuum, warning that the deadlock foreshadows the collapse of the Lebanese Republic.