Date: Mar 19, 2019 Source: The Daily Star FPM, Future try to defuse tensions before Cabinet session Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Efforts have been launched to defuse tensions between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Future Movement and set the stage for a calm and productive Cabinet session this week, official sources said Monday, as the row between the two allied parties threatened to hinder the government’s work. “Officials from the FPM and the Future Movement are already in contact to ease tensions and clear the way for a smooth and productive Cabinet session,” an official source told The Daily Star. The source said the Cabinet is slated to meet under President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace Thursday, in the fourth session since its formation on Jan. 31. “There are 54 items on the Cabinet agenda which includes appointments to the Military Council,” the source said. The source added that the de-escalation efforts between the FPM and the Future Movement, linked in a 2016 political deal that led to Aoun’s election as president and brought Prime Minister Saad Hariri back to the premiership, are expected to be stepped up following Hariri’s return to Beirut Sunday night after a private visit to Paris where he underwent a medical checkup. The new government has been ridden by divisions over ties with Syria and differences over military appointments, not even two months after its formation. At its last session on March 7, the Cabinet postponed a decision on key appointments to the six-member Military Council due to a dispute over the nomination of some members to fill four vacant posts, including an Army chief of staff. The four vacant posts in the Military Council, headed by Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun, include the Army’s chief of staff, which is allotted to a Druze officer. The other posts set to be filled are secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council, general inspector and a full-time council member. Hariri had said after meeting Aoun last week that the issue of military appointments would be finished at the next Cabinet session, signaling that the dispute has been settled. Hariri has not yet commented on Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s latest tirade against the government and the Future Movement over the issues of Syrian refugee returns and fighting corruption that ignited a new war of words between the two sides, imperiling Cabinet solidarity badly needed to face a host of political and economic challenges. The diatribe carried with it implicit threats to topple the Cabinet. But Future officials and media outlets struck back at Bassil, saying his escalation put the country’s stability and the government’s productivity at risk. The FPM leader was also accused of presenting his credentials to the alliance grouping Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. Among other things, Bassil lambasted last week’s Brussels conference, arguing that conferences that raise money by way of responding to the Syrian refugee crisis “fund the stay of the refugees” in host countries instead of their return to Syria. He warned that if the refugees are not returned home and corruption is not eliminated, “there will be no government.” Bassil, touching on the divisive issue of relations with the Syrian regime, also defended contacts with Damascus over refugee returns, saying there was no need to normalize ties “because [diplomatic] relations already exist and are not severed with Syria.” Future TV, the mouthpiece of the Future Movement, which launched a blistering attack on Bassil last week, did not mention the FPM leader’s tirade in its news bulletin preamble Monday night, in what was seen as part of de-escalation efforts between the two sides. The Syrian refugee crisis and its repercussions on Lebanon, in addition to the fiscal reforms recommended at the CEDRE conference were discussed during a meeting between Hariri and the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis. “I ... acknowledged the very strong performance of the country and his excellency [Hariri] at the Brussels III conference with messages that confirm an urgent need to ensure safe, voluntary and dignified return of Syrian refugees home, according to the international humanitarian norms but as soon as possible under these norms and full respect of these norms, to treat this as a humanitarian issue,” Kubis said after the meeting with Hariri at the Grand Serail, “and heard again expectation that the U.N. and the humanitarian community will continue in facilitating these returns as much as possible.” He confirmed that the presence of over a million displaced Syrians was causing “a heavy burden” on Lebanon, “and there is a need to support also communities that are temporarily still hosting them.” Kubis has held talks with Lebanese leaders ahead of his forthcoming meeting with the Security Council of the United Nations next week in New York. The U.N. official said he wanted to make sure the government’s reform program “proceeds forward, that there is no disruption, no diversion from the objectives of reform, the delivery of services to the people, improving the environment, including as regards fighting corruption, by any other topics that might create disruption. So it is very important to make sure that the government can proceed with reforms.” Meanwhile, Aoun warned of the heavy costs incurred by the Syrian refugee presence on Lebanon’s economy. “A bone of contention is the issue of resolving the problem of displaced Syrians who have raised the unemployment rate in our country, as well as the crime rate by 30 percent,” Aoun said in a speech at Baabda Palace at the launch of a national campaign aimed at revitalizing Lebanon’s economy. He said the country’s social and infrastructure problems have been exacerbated by the presence of Syrian refugees who had “caused damage in small commercial markets” by competing with Lebanese merchants. Referring to ongoing attempts to fight corruption, Aoun said: “The battle against corruption has begun today ... In this battle, there is no immunity to anyone. Anyone who is accused [of corruption] should stand before the judiciary, or else we will face a big problem.” He pledged to crack down on “a big portion of corruption” by May.