BEIRUT: The Cabinet faces a crucial test of its fragile solidarity when it meets Tuesday to tackle key issues, including the Future Movement’s demand to refer the case of former Information Minister Michel Samaha to the Judicial Council. With threats by Future ministers to resign or walk out of the Cabinet session if their demand is not met, and Hezbollah ministers and their March 8 allies strongly opposing referring Samaha’s case to the Judicial Council, Prime Minister Tammam Salam faces a tough challenge that could threaten the reactivation of the Cabinet, a week after it smoothly passed important appointments.

Hezbollah opposes referring Samaha’s case to the Judicial Council,” a March 8 minister told The Daily Star Monday night.

Asked if any understanding has been reached over the Samaha case to avert a new split within the Cabinet, Salam was quoted by An-Nahar daily as saying Monday: “The issue has been raised and is under discussion.”

Information Minister Ramzi Joreige, one of three ministers representing the Kataeb Party, said he was unsure if the Cabinet would be able to endorse the demand to refer Samaha’s case to the Judicial Council in the absence of consensus over this sensitive issue.

He said the Cabinet is expected to address three key issues shelved from last week’s session.

These are Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi’s call on the Cabinet to refer Samaha’s case to the Judicial Council; municipal elections and the issue of Civil Defense volunteers who have been staging a sit-in in Martyrs’ Square since September last year demanding salaried employment.

“The Cabinet will approve holding the municipal elections on time,” Joreige told The Daily Star, dismissing the possibility of an extension of local councils’ terms. He said financing the municipal election process, estimated at $20 million, would not be a problem since all ministers have agreed on the need to hold the election, scheduled in May, on time.

Similarly, Joreige said he expected the Cabinet to pass a decree granting Civil Defense volunteers full-time employment. “All the ministers are in agreement on granting this right to Civil Defense volunteers.” But I don’t know if the demand to refer Samaha’s case to the Judicial Council will be passed in the absence of consensus over this issue.”

The Kataeb ministers along with the Future and March 14 ministers support referring Samaha’s case to the Judicial Council.

While Rifi was reported to have threatened to resign if Samaha’s case was not referred to the Judicial Council, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk denied the reports on possible resignation.

“We are determined to refer [Samaha’s] case to the Judicial Council. This determination doesn’t mean resignation, but instead dialogue and pushing the case to the Judicial Council,” Machnouk told reporters after meeting with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian.

He added that the rest of the ministers should also strive to reach justice in a case that could have jeopardized civil war in the country. “The visual and audio [recordings] prove Samaha and the Syrian regime’s responsibility.”

However, Machnouk said that the debate over Samaha’s case could open the door to many possibilities for the Future ministers, including withdrawal or shunning the Cabinet. To avert a new split within the Cabinet, Salam was reported to have asked the Military Court of Cassation to speed up Samaha’s retrial and issue its verdict.

Samaha, a key ally to Syrian President Bashar Assad, was released by the Military Court of Cassation on a $100,000 bail last month after being convicted in a terror plot to destabilize the country last year.

Samaha was convicted on terrorism charges in May of 2015 for smuggling explosives into Lebanon and planning attacks on political and religious leaders. He was originally sentenced to four and a half years in prison, but following an outcry over the leniency of his sentence the verdict was annulled and a retrial was ordered.

Samaha’s release has evoked nationwide outrage, mainly by the March 14 coalition, as his terror plot allegedly aimed to target anti-Syrian officials in northern Lebanon.

March 14 officials have since called for undercutting the Military Tribunal’s prerogatives after its decision to release Samaha, demanding the case be referred to the Judicial Council, the country’s highest judicial body.

Machnouk said he hoped the financing of municipal elections would be approved during Tuesday’s Cabinet session. “All political parties are in agreement [on holding the elections]. There is no political force opposing the elections.”

Machnouk also accused Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah of using “democratic cover” to obstruct the presidential election in his speech last week. He said the presidential election is back to square one.

“The presidential issue was at a zero point and is still at a zero point. The main part of Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s speech was obstructing the presidential election by using a democratic cover,” Machnouk said.

The Future Movement and its March 14 allies have repeatedly accused Hezbollah of blocking the presidential vote at the behest of Iran, the party’s main regional backer.

Nasrallah vehemently denied such claims in a speech last Friday, throwing his weight fully behind MP Michel Aoun’s candidacy for presidency.

Separately, the French Ambassador to Lebanon Emanuel Bon said his country was helping in the presidential election.

“I expressed [to the patriarch] our appreciation of his clear stances on the need to find a solution as soon as possible to the presidential election issue,” Bon told reporters after meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Bkirki.

“I told [the patriarch] that we share with him the will to help in the presidential election and solve the political crisis as soon as possible.”