Date: Jun 21, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Geagea asks Aoun to check Bassil to spare country Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has called on President Michel Aoun to intervene to rein in Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, whose fiery statements recently had caused tensions with the Future Movement and imperiled the 2016 presidential deal, in order to save the country before it is too late. Geagea’s appeal came in an oral message that was conveyed to the president by former Information Minister Melhem Riachi. Speaking to reporters after meeting Aoun at Baabda Palace, Riachi said the letter dealt with “current political developments and the situation in the region,” the state-run National News Agency reported, without further details of the letter.  Riachi, a political aide to Geagea, could not be reached for further comment. But a senior LF official told The Daily Star that the gist of the message was based mainly on Geagea’s news conference this week at which he implicitly lashed out at Bassil, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, blaming him for government paralysis and called on Aoun to intervene to save the situation. “The current political authority [government] has sprung from the settlement that took place nearly two and a half years ago. But unfortunately, it is in a state of partial paralysis because one of its main parties [the FPM] is behaving randomly, with no limits or logic, and it does not take into account the public interest,” Geagea said at the news conference after chairing the weekly meeting of the LF’s Strong Republic parliamentary bloc in Maarab Tuesday. He was referring to the 2016 political settlement that led to the election of Aoun as president and brought Saad Hariri back to the premiership. Bassil was a major partner to the deal reached by Aoun and Hariri that ended a presidential vacuum that lasted more than two and a half years. Geagea recalled that Bassil had obstructed the government formation for five or six months just because he did not want the LF to be represented in the Cabinet significantly commensurate with its parliamentary representation. Implicitly accusing Bassil of giving priority to his private interests at the expense of the country’s public interest, Geagea said: “It is no longer possible to save the situation without direct intervention by Gen. Aoun in order to rein in the situation in this respect. ... We again appeal to President Aoun to directly intervene to bring matters back to their proper perspective and forestall what is happening quickly in order to save the country at all levels before it is too late.” Geagea indirectly accused Bassil of seeking to gain a monopoly over key state posts allotted to Christians in a new batch of anticipated appointments in the public administration. “Again, there is one of the two parties to the [presidential] settlement that is insisting that all Christian appointments be from its share, ignoring that there are other [Christian] parties,” Geagea said, clearly referring to the FPM, founded by Aoun. He renewed his call for adopting a mechanism based on qualifications and competency in selecting candidates for key public positions. Geagea met with Hariri Tuesday and was reported to have discussed, among other things, his party’s share in the upcoming administrative appointments. Geagea’s talks with Hariri came a day after the premier and Bassil held a marathon ice-breaking meeting during which they agreed that the presidential deal was intact and solid. They also agreed on the need to reactivate government work. It was the first encounter between Hariri and Bassil since the FPM leader’s reported comments last month against Sunni political leaders had ignited a new war of words with the Future Movement and caused rage within the Sunni sect. The latest episode began last month when Bassil reportedly accused Sunni politicians of assuming key state posts “on the corpse of the Maronite political establishment, taking all the Christians’ rights [to public posts].” Meanwhile, Hariri left Beirut for Abu Dhabi Thursday afternoon on a visit during which he will meet with a number of officials in the United Arab Emirates, a statement from his media office said. Hariri had said there would be no second Cabinet session for the week, set for Thursday, because he was traveling out of Lebanon. Before his departure, Hariri met at his Downtown Beirut residence with Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab, discussing, among other things, the draft 2019 state budget, which is being examined by Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee, and proposed cuts to pensions and social benefits of retired military personnel. “I met with Prime Minister Hariri to discuss the issues that are currently being raised, starting with the budget, issues related to the Military Tribunal and my visit to Russia. Regarding the budget, Prime Minister Hariri supports the Lebanese Army and doesn’t differentiate between the Lebanese Army and other security services,” Bou Saab told reporters after the meeting. “Things are positive and we hope that the budget approved in Parliament will keep the same numbers we discussed in the Cabinet.” Asked to comment on renewed street protests by military veterans against the proposed cuts to their pensions, he said: “I hope that I do not see the military and veterans closing state institutions and burning tires. This is not normal for them. We are doing everything we can and Prime Minister Hariri is working on solutions that will be acceptable to all.” Bou Saab’s remarks came as military veterans have blocked for the second consecutive day the entrance to a Finance Ministry building in Beirut to protest austerity measures proposed in the draft budget. A number of veterans gathered outside the ministry’s revenues department on the Beshara Khoury road. Veterans have held a series of protests since early April to oppose measures contained in the draft budget that would reduce their pensions and end-of-service benefits. In late May, Bou Saab said that the pensions would see a 3 percent reduction, and that the savings made would be used to fund their health care. The protests will continue Friday outside the Finance Ministry, and into Monday at a location yet to be decided, veterans told The Daily Star. After Monday they may take “escalatory steps,” including blocking the entrance to the airport. The Finance and Budget Committee has not yet decided on articles relating to military retirees, as they are awaiting the results of “ongoing consultations” between Hariri and the finance and defense ministers, according to the committee’s chair, MP Ibrahim Kanaan. The committee endorsed in its evening session Thursday the budget allocations for the premiership and institutions affiliated with it, while it froze some allocations, the NNA reported. The committee will discuss the budget allocations for the state-run Council for Development and Reconstruction and the Higher Relief Committee at 5:30 p.m. Friday, the NNA said. “We are keeping to the deficit ratio laid out by the government,” Kanaan said after the morning session. “We will not accept any spending article without the submission of the necessary clarifications from the institution or administration concerned.” The draft budget approved by Cabinet last month seeks to reduce the deficit-to-GDP ratio to 7.59 percent, down from an estimated 11.5 percent last year.