Hasan Lakkis BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s patience is running out and he could resign if Cabinet paralysis continues, ministerial sources said Thursday, adding the premier would not call for a Cabinet session before all obstacles hindering the implementation of a trash plan are removed.
But former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was quoted by his visitors Thursday as saying that he did not expect the Cabinet to resign.
“A full-fledged government that does not meet is way better than a caretaker Cabinet,” Siniora was quoted as saying.
Speaking to The Daily Star, ministerial sources said Salam would only call for a government meeting after a final agreement is reached on places where sanitary landfills would be established in line with the government’s trash plan.
Environmentalists have already begun to evaluate whether a site in the Bekaa Valley, one of several proposed by Hezbollah, is suitable as a landfill, looking particularly to see whether a landfill would risk polluting any groundwater supplies nearby.
The sources said Salam’s “disgust” with tampering with the country’s fate has reached its peak and that his resignation was possible, as his patience is running out.
The sources said that Salam was very annoyed with the Cabinet paralysis and outbidding acts practiced by all Cabinet groups, which is jeopardizing Lebanon’s fate.
The sources said that Salam would not allow any political faction to turn the premiership into a mailbox and would not let anyone hold him responsible for the collapse of the state while they deny any responsibility in the matter.
Salam voiced fear that Lebanon’s financial rating was retreating, noting that it would be a catastrophe if the country’s international ranking in this regard was downgraded.
Salam complained that none of the Cabinet parties had the intention to help end the impasse.
He said that the behavior of one of the ministers was irresponsible, in an indirect reference to Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement. Indirectly referring to Hezbollah, Salam was quoted as saying that the allies of this minister were doing nothing to help the Cabinet overcome obstacles put by a major Cabinet group, but that they were not obstructing the government’s work themselves.
Aoun said Tuesday that his two ministers would not return to the Cabinet until a new Army chief and a new Military Council were appointed.
This came after an attempt to resolve the Cabinet crisis through promoting Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the former head of the Army Commando Unit and Aoun’s son-in-law to the rank of a Maj. Gen hit a dead end.
The sources said Salam was not satisfied with the outcome of his trip to New York last month, where he took part in the U.N. General Assembly meetings. The source said that Salam felt that Lebanon did not attract the attention of the international community, which was busy monitoring developments in the region.
The sources said that Salam did not feel comfortable with developments in the region, particularly Russia’s military intervention in Syria.
He said he received information that Washington was not at ease with Moscow’s military operation in Syria, voicing fear that any escalation in military activities in Syria would cause a new influx of Syrian refugees.
Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc highlighted after its regular meeting the importance of continuing dialogue to agree on a new electoral law based on proportional representation, to elect a new president and agree on other items comprising the agenda of the talks launched by Speaker Nabih Berri last month.
The bloc said that “aborting” the compromise to revive Cabinet and Parliament would further complicate the political crisis in the country.
Separately, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, will hold talks with Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad and other Lebanese officials in Beirut Friday.
Meanwhile, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and party Minister Wael Abu Faour returned to Beirut after holding separate talks with Saudi King Salman and former premier Saad Hariri in Riyadh Wednesday.
A PSP statement said they discussed “the latest developments in Lebanon,” without elaborating.
A statement issued by Hariri’s media office said the officials discussed Lebanon’s presidential election crisis and the country’s security situation. Jumblatt’s son, Taymour, was also present at both meetings.
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