Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Premier Tammam Salam is expected to bring up the garbage crisis as a first item during a national dialogue session Monday amid a reported threat to step down if Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb’s plan to resolve the 3-month-old trash crisis is not implemented. “Prime Minister Salam’s patience is running out over the failure to carry out the garbage plan, but he has not yet set a deadline to quit,” a source close to Salam told The Daily Star Sunday night.
Frustrated with never-ending differences and divisions crippling his government, Salam has blamed bickering among political parties for blocking the implementation of Chehayeb’s plan, warning that he would take the “appropriate step” if no solution is reached within days. His statement was interpreted as a veiled threat to resign.
The trash crisis worsened Sunday when piles of uncollected garbage were washed into Beirut’s streets by heavy rains and floodwaters, raising public concerns.
Government officials have warned that the mounds of uncollected garbage piled up in and around Beirut pose immense health risks if the trash gets washed into storm drains.
Salam is expected to highlight the trash issue as a first topic during Monday’s national dialogue session in Parliament, seeking the rival parties’ support to carry out the government’s plan.
Speaker Nabih Berri will support Salam’s push to resolve the waste crisis, even though the dialogue session is devoted to discussing the 17-month-old presidential deadlock.
Berri will present during the meeting a review and assessment of proposals made by various political leaders in previous sessions on the characteristics of the president.
Berri has called for three consecutive dialogue sessions, on Oct. 26, 27 and 28, in an attempt to reach an agreement on the election of a president. The all-party talks, which began on Sept. 9, are also intended to end paralysis in Parliament and the government and approve a new electoral law, a major demand of all the March 8 and March 14 parties.
Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said the government was unable to implement the garbage plan “because it is unable to impose a landfill.” He signaled that Salam might step down if obstacles hindering Chehayeb’s plan persisted.
“Prime Minister Tammam Salam is an honest man and we understand any decision he might take,” Abu Faour said in a TV interview.
Chehayeb’s plan, approved by the Cabinet on Sept. 9, calls for dividing Beirut and Mount Lebanon’s trash between landfills in Akkar, the Bekaa Valley and potentially Burj Hammoud, while municipalities prepare to take responsibility for their own waste over the coming 18 months.
However, the plan has run into trouble as residents in various areas refuse to take in Beirut’s and Mount Lebanon’s waste.Salam came under pressure by civil society groups, who gathered outside his Moseitbeh residence Sunday night, calling on him to convene a quick Cabinet session to resolve the garbage crisis.
The Cabinet has not met since Sept. 9 due to differences among its ministers over a decision-making formula and the promotion of senior Army officers. Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said earlier this month that his two ministers would not return to the Cabinet until a new Army commander and a new military council are appointed.
One of three ministers representing the Future Movement in the Cabinet called for its resignation, saying that the obstruction of the garbage plan had begun at the beginning of the year.
In an interview with MTV, Minister of State for Administrative Development Nabil de Freij called on Salam to give a three-day deadline to find a landfill in the Bekaa Valley and in Upper Metn or Upper Kesrouan and to resign if a dumping place is not found.
Asked whether the Future Movement will quit the government, he said: “The Future Movement’s decision is made by [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri and [former] Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. In my view, the government must resign but their view is different.”
The all-party talks come amid Berri’s insistence on holding a legislative session as soon as possible to approve the World Bank’s $600 soft loans.
Berri is scheduled to chair a meeting of Parliament’s Secretariat Tuesday to prepare the agenda of an upcoming legislative session.
A number of lawmakers, mainly from the Future Movement, Hezbollah and Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, have said they supported a legislative session to approve essential draft laws.
Also, senior officials of the Future Movement and Hezbollah are scheduled to meet at Berri’s Ain al-Tineh residence Tuesday as part of their ongoing dialogue aimed at easing sectarian and political tensions, stoked by the nearly 5-year-old war in Syria.
The Future-Hezbollah talks come amid fresh tension between the two sides sparked by Machnouk’s speech two weeks ago, in which he said that the Future Movement would quit the government and withdraw from dialogue if the Cabinet’s work continued to be obstructed by the FPM and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah struck back at Machnouk, saying he didn’t care if the Future ministers resigned from the government or withdrew from national dialogue.
Separately, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve arrived in Beirut Sunday night on a one-day visit for talks with Salam and Machnouk on boosting bilateral relations, the Syrian refugee crisis and developments in the region.