Hussein DakroubHasan Lakkis| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: A deal was reached Monday night to end a severe garbage crisis which has choked residents of Beirut and Mount Lebanon over the past week, clearing the way for Sukleen to resume collection of rotting trash piled up in the streets of the capital and its suburbs.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tammam Salam came under pressure Monday to postpone a crucial Cabinet session to avert a looming confrontation with MP Michel Aoun’s ministers over the thorny issue of the decision-making system and prevent the possible collapse of his embattled government.

As news of the agreement emerged, Sukleen workers began removing garbage on Beirut’s streets.

The agreement was announced by Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk following two marathon meetings chaired by Salam at the Grand Serail and attended by the ministers of finance, interior, environment, energy, industry, agriculture, education and administrative development.

The eight ministers are part of a ministerial committee tasked with following up the eight-day crisis that has seen streets in Beirut and its suburbs flooded with rotting trash.

“The committee has unanimously decided to issue instructions to begin immediately the removal of garbage from Beirut’s streets,” Machnouk said.

He added that the committee also agreed on the balanced distribution of garbage in Greater Beirut and Mount Lebanon to newly established landfills. He did not name these areas.

Machnouk said the committee approved financial incentives for municipalities where the new landfills are located.

Trash piled up in the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon early last week after Sukleen, the company in charge of collecting wastes in the area, stopped its operations. The company’s step came after the Environment Ministry shut down the Naameh landfill south of Beirut without securing a substitute.

Meanwhile, the postponement of Tuesday’s Cabinet session was an option in a bid to avert a new clash over the issue of the decision-making system.

“Postponement of Tuesday’s session is possible to give time for further consultations over the decision-making mechanism,” a source close to Salam told The Daily Star Monday night.

The source said resignation was still one of Salam’s options in the face of attempts to paralyze the government. “Resignation is a possible option if obstruction of the Cabinet’s work continued,” he said.

In the meantime, the government scrambled to defuse tensions with Aoun over the contentious topic of military and security appointments as Defense Minister Samir Moqbel discussed the issue with the Free Patriotic Movement leader ahead of a special Cabinet session Tuesday.

The session will discuss a mechanism to govern the Cabinet’s decision-making and exercise executive powers in the absence of a president.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said he was delegated by MP Walid Jumblatt to plead with Salam to postpone Tuesday’s session to allow for more time to reach a consensus on the decision-making process.

“One of the options which we call on Prime Minister Salam to discuss is to give a chance for contacts by postponing tomorrow’s Cabinet session,” Abu Faour told reporters after meeting Salam.

French President Francois Hollande spoke with Salam by telephone, reiterating France’s support for Lebanon and its legitimate institutions, according to a statement released by Salam’s office.

During the conversation, Salam and Hollande discussed the current Cabinet crisis in Lebanon and its repercussions. The French president expressed his regret over the continued vacancy in the presidency and the inability of the Lebanese political parties to agree on the election of a new president, the statement said.

Hollande also voiced his full support for Salam’s efforts aimed at preventing paralysis in the Cabinet, while stressing that France would continue the implementation of the plan to provide the Lebanese Army and security forces with weapons funded by a $3 billion Saudi donation, the statement added.Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri also telephoned Salam to affirm Cairo’s full support for the Lebanese government in order to preserve stability in Lebanon, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

Abu Faour’s remarks came shortly after Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said Tuesday’s Cabinet session was doomed to fail, stoking fears that the prime minister might resign if no agreement was reached on the decision-making formula.

“We are going tomorrow to a [Cabinet[ meeting which is destined to fail,” Derbas, who is close to Salam, told the Free Lebanon radio station.

“The prevailing speech is cruel and the political class has proved its incompetence,” he added.

Derbas said Salam would not cede any of the prime minister’s prerogatives. “Gen. Aoun and his allies do not constitute a legal quorum [in the Cabinet] to approve [security and military] appointments,” he added.

In another interview with the Central News Agency, Derbas said resignation was still one of Salam’s options.

Rival political parties have feuded over the system under which the Cabinet can make decisions and issue decrees in light of the 14-month-old presidential vacuum.

The FPM’s two ministers have been pushing for a system 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 paralyze the Cabinet’s work.

The FPM’s ministers, contending that they represent the Maronite president, also want to have a say in preparing the Cabinet’s agenda, a contentious issue that infringes on the Sunni premier’s prerogatives.

Meanwhile, Moqbel began consultations with political leaders over the issue of security and military appointments before presenting it to Cabinet.

He met first with Aoun at the latter’s residence in Rabieh before holding talks with Jumblatt at the latter’s residence in Clemenceau neighborhood Monday night.

Moqbel said he and Aoun agreed on the appointment of senior military and security officers. “If no consensus is reached over the appointments, then, as Gen. Aoun said, we will see,” he told reporters after meeting Aoun.

Ministerial sources said Moqbel proposed to Aoun the extension of the term of his son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, head of the Army Commando Unit, for one year. Roukoz’s term expires in October.

But Aoun rejected the offer, arguing that Roukoz had also opposed such an offer, the sources said.

According to the sources, Moqbel and Aoun agreed on the extension of the term of Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Walid Salman, who retires on Aug. 7, for one month.

This will allow the Cabinet to discuss in September either the appointment of a new Army commander, a military intelligence chief and a secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council, or extension of the incumbents’ terms, the sources said.

Aoun, who strongly opposes extending the terms of military and security chiefs, is lobbying for Roukoz to be appointed as new Army commander.