It’s make-or-break week for Cabinet

With the vital highway in the coastal town of Jiyyeh remaining closed by Sunday night, it was unclear how Sukleen, the waste management contractor for Beirut and Mount Lebanon, would be able to complete its collection. Garbage collection resumed after a temporary deal was found to begin taking trash to several landfills in undisclosed locations. Salam, speaking to visitors at his Mosteibeh residence, said he was trying to ensure the requirements of the Cabinet’s work. “But so far, I have not felt any breakthrough. If no solution is reached Tuesday and when the time for action comes, I will take a stance and I will speak about the role I have played while shouldering national responsibility,” Salam said. Declaring that “all options” are on the table, Salam said he would be ready to serve the country and assume national responsibility in “these extraordinary circumstances.” “Any thing or any measure or decision I take, it will take into account the interests of the country and the people. This is my method amid the presidential vacuum,” the prime minister said. Salam, according to visitors, pledged to make efforts to resolve the crisis over the Cabinet’s decision-making system that would take into account the people’s interests and their rejection of his resignation. Apparently referring to the possibility of resignation, Salam said: “I am not hasty in these extraordinary circumstances.” MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and its allies have locked horns with Salam and the majority of ministers over the system by which the Cabinet can make decisions and issue decrees in light of the 14-month-old presidential vacuum. The Cabinet will hold a special session Tuesday to discuss a mechanism to govern its decision-making and exercise executive powers in the absence of a president. Since the country fell into a presidential vacuum on May 25, 2014, at the end of former President Michel Sleiman’s term, Salam has adopted a mechanism based on consensus in making the Cabinet decisions. However, consensus does not mean unanimous support of all the 24 ministers. 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 refused 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. The FPM-Salam clash intensified when the Cabinet passed a decree earlier this month allotting $21 million to help export agricultural and industrial products by sea, while ignoring the FPM ministers’ demand to discuss the appointment of senior military and security officers. Salam said the mechanism based on unanimous support had paralyzed the Cabinet’s productivity. “The premiership cannot stop functioning. If we were able to meet, we would not have fallen into the garbage crisis,” he said. Parliamentary sources in the FPM said nothing has changed since last week’s Cabinet session and that there have been no contacts with Salam, the Future Movement or any of the Cabinet parties to settle the row over the decision-making mechanism. Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas, who is close to Salam, said no one can take anything from the prime minister’s prerogatives, in a clear response to the FPM. Speaking to reporters after meeting Salam, he lamented the Cabinet paralysis following the presidential vacuum and the obstruction of Parliament’s role. Asked what decision Salam might take in the next few days, Derbas said: “All options are open to the prime minister. No one can take anything from his prerogatives. Resignation is part of his prerogatives. So is calling the Cabinet to meet and arranging the agenda. All these matters are part of his prerogatives and he will not accept to discuss them with anyone.” Ministerial sources noted that a denial by Salam’s media office of reports about tendering his resignation came after Hezbollahleader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s warning of the gravity of this step. In a televised speech Saturday at a graduation ceremony of sons and daughters of fallen Hezbollah fighters, Nasrallah urged the Future Movement to talk to the FPM to resolve the crisis over the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism. He also warned against Salam’s resignation, saying this “irrational and irresponsible” act would plunge the country into a full-fledged power vacuum. “Let me be clear: The threat to resign or hinting at resigning will never change anything. It is not useful and is harmful to the country,” Nasrallah said. “Anyone who is threatening to resign will take the country toward vacuum. We warn against this dangerous game. Don’t bring down the government by your hands.” The ministerial sources said they do not expect Tuesday’s Cabinet session to come up with a solution to the crisis over the decision-making system. Instead, they expect Salam to adjourn the session until Thursday. However, the sources said the possible extension of the term of Army chief of staff Maj. Gen. Walid Salman, who retires on Aug. 7, might trigger new street protests by the FPM’s supporters this time with Hezbollah’s support. Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law, said the FPM will not back down under intimidation from pressing ahead to regain Christian rights in the public administration. During a tour of the northern Minyeh-Dinnieh district, Bassil said the FPM is seeking partnership in the country’s decision-making process. “The one who is avoiding partnership is the one who is causing the country’s political, security and economic problems,” he said. “We are extending our hand to him, saying to him come to us in national partnership.” Reiterating the FPM’s demand to be a partner in Parliament and the Cabinet, Bassil said: “No one can intimidate or threaten us with any measure he might take. He will be held responsible for taking the country to a wrong place. We will not back off from a right under threats or intimidation.” MP Alain Aoun from the FPM said the group’s two ministers would attend Tuesday’s Cabinet session without the intention to blow it up. The Daily Star