BEIRUT: The Cabinet is expected Thursday to set the stage for the launching of key military appointments, a contentious issue that threatens to cast the already divided government into further disarray, as the Free Patriotic Movement warned against the extension of the term of any security or military official. Although military appointments are not on the Cabinet agenda, deputy premier and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel said Wednesday he would raise the issue of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Kheir, the secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council, who retires on Aug. 20, as a first step toward preventing any vacuum in the military establishment.

In the meantime, Speaker Nabih Berri warned that Lebanon would be at “a crossroads” at the end of the year if the crisis over the presidential election was not solved.

Moqbel met Berri Wednesday, a day after consulting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, apparently to clear the decks for kicking off military appointments in batches.

“I will bring up during the Cabinet session tomorrow [Thursday] the issue of the secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council who retires on Aug. 20. According to laws and the Constitution, I will propose three names to appoint one of them,” Moqbel told reporters after meeting Berri at the latter’s Ain al-Tineh residence.

If no agreement among ministers, or a two-thirds Cabinet decision, is reached on any of the proposed candidates, Moqbel said he would exercise his constitutional and legal duties to extend Kheir’s term.

“I will not accept any vacuum either in the Military Council or the Army Command,” he said, explaining that under Article 55 in Defense Law, the defense minister has the prerogatives to issue a decision extending the term of an Army officer.

Moqbel signaled a possible extension of the term of Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi, which expires on Sept. 30. Asked about the fate of the Army commander’s term, he said: “We are now on Aug. 17, 2016. There is time for Sept. 30. At any rate, what is applied today will also be applied later.

“So far, we have not elected a president who is the supreme commander of the armed forces. Is it logical, in these extraordinary conditions that if no agreement is reached in the Cabinet on the appointment of a new Army commander, to leave the Military Council with its hands shackled, whereby we cannot take any decision on food, medicine and others for the Army?” Moqbel said. “It is out of the question to have a vacuum in the Army and the Military Council.” The six-member Military Council is comprised of the Army commander, chief of staff, secretary of the Higher Defense Council, general director of administration, general inspector and another high-ranking officer.

Political and military sources told The Daily Star last week that they have acquired information indicating Kahwagi’s term will be extended for an additional year until September 2017. Kahwagi’s term was extended by 12 months in August last year.

Moqbel’s remarks came a day after MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc reiterated its opposition to the possible extension of Kahwagi’s term. The bloc called for the appointment of a new Army chief, rejecting attempts to extend the terms of any senior military or security officials.

The bloc has yet to decide what steps it would take if Kahwagi’s term was extended again.

The extension of Kahwagi’s term by one year last August infuriated the FPM, which prompted the party’s two ministers, backed by Hezbollah’s ministers, to boycott Cabinet for months. They finally agreed to rejoin Cabinet after the Defense Ministry appointed new members of the Military Council.

The telecommunications issue will not be discussed by the Cabinet Thursday due to the absence of Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb, who was busy receiving condolences over the death of his sister.

The Cabinet is expected to discuss a report by a ministerial committee tasked with studying solutions to the pollution of Litani River and appoint contract secondary schoolteachers who passed tests conducted by the Civil Service Council.

For his part, Berri warned that the country would slip into a more dire situation if its political crises are not solved by the end of the year. He renewed his call for the quick election of a president to end the more than 2-year-old power vacuum.

“The situation in the country will be at a crossroads at the end of this year if we do not agree on appropriate solutions to outstanding issues,” Berri was quoted as saying by MPs during the speaker’s Wednesday weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence.

“The situation cannot endure the continued stalemate and erosion in institutions, especially since this is affecting the lives of citizens and increasing their daily suffering. It also reflects negatively on the situation in the country,” he added.

Berri reiterated his call for a quick agreement on a comprehensive solution, starting with the election of a president. He was adamant that parliamentary elections, scheduled in June next year, would take place on time, staunchly rejecting any new extension of Parliament’s mandate, which was extended twice in 2013 and 2014.

“Elections will take place on time. There is no return to an extension under any circumstances,” Berri was quoted as saying. He urged the rival factions to quickly agree on a new electoral law which ‘constitutes the backbone of a solution.”

Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea encouraged former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to endorse Aoun for the presidency, but warned that he may lose popularity as a result.

In an interview with Al-Joumhouria newspaper published Wednesday, Geagea said that if Hariri were to relinquish his support for MP Sleiman Frangieh’s candidacy and instead back Aoun, then the presidential vacuum would come to an end.

“If Hariri decided today to carry out a commando operation and announce his support for Aoun, the [presidential] election would take place regardless of all equations,” Geagea said.

In a televised speech last week, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah signaled that Hezbollah would accept Hariri’s return to the premiership in exchange for the Future Movement’s support for Aoun’s presidential bid.

But the parliamentary Future bloc has rejected Nasrallah’s overture, condemning it as unconstitutional and saying the Hezbollah chief cannot impose Aoun as a sole candidate for the country’s top Christian post.

Geagea, however, said that Hariri does not need anyone’s help to reach the premiership if he wants, as he has the largest bloc in Parliament.