Beirut – George Shahin
Prime Minister Najib Mikati
Beirut – George Shahin
A government source revealed to Arabstody that the government crisis, resulting from the Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s halting cabinet meeting, still prevails and is expected to extend for weeks
. Mikati said the cabinet meeting will have to wait until an understanding is reached concerning the appointments in the Civil Service Board and the Disciplinary Board, so that the cabinet will be fully activated before convening.
The source, who attended a series of meetings held by the Prime Minister a few days ago, reported that the government crisis is “open to all possibilities unless ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement stop bickering and disrupting the sessions for trivial reasons.”
However, a source in the presidential palace told \'Arabstoday\' that he expects Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to take an action in the beginning of next week in order to bring the views closer, and to pressure the ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement to back away from some decisions which hinder the government and prevent it from carrying out the necessary actions.
\"The President did his best to avoid the current scenario, however, he does not get the reaction he expected\", the sources added.
Meanwhile, ministerial and political media reported that suspension of government meetings would prevent entitlements for the government and might lead to further disputes, concerning, for instance, the Syrian request for deploying soldiers in regional areas and Akkar under the pretext that Syrian refugees are hosting \"the Free Army\".
Mikati sources refused to link the suspension of the meetings of the Council of Ministers to these entitlements, saying that the army is in no need for a new government decision, as a decision regarding this issue has been made years ago, assigning the army to secure the Lebanese territory and depending on internal security forces for assistance.
\"The Supreme Defence Council held under the chairmanship of President Suleiman, three weeks ago, has assigned the army to protect the borders\", Mikati sources added.
Otherr ministerial sources believe that postponing the meetings of the Council of ministers would avoid a controversial entitlement among the factions of the government.
Conversely, a third group of ministerial sources consider the renewal of the cooperation protocol of the International Tribunal and the extension of its work in the Security Council are of the jurisdiction of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in any case, and that the advisory opinion of the government would be impossible, even if the Council of ministers holds its meetings once again, as consensus regarding any issue would be impossible as well, since Suleiman and Mikati link any re-examination of the situation to the tribunal, and cooperation with it requires a national consensus.