Date: Jul 24, 2019   Lebanon: PSP-LDP escalation holds up govt session Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri is waiting for political de-escalation between rival factions over the fallout from last month’s deadly Aley clashes before he calls for a Cabinet session, a key adviser to the premier said Tuesday. “So far, there is no decision by Prime Minister Hariri to convene the Cabinet this week before the parties calm down and a breakthrough is made in mediation efforts to reach a resolution to the aftermath of the Qabr Shmoun incident,” former Future MP Ammar Houri, a political adviser to Hariri, told The Daily Star. “Prime Minister Hariri does not want a Cabinet session to be turned into a confrontation venue” between ministers who support referring the Qabr Shmoun episode to the Judicial Council, and those who oppose this, he said. Houri emphasized that finding a resolution to the fallout of the Qabr Shmoun incident was the key to resuming Cabinet sessions, which have been stalled since the June 30 shootout in the Aley town that left two men dead and four others wounded. The two men, bodyguards in the convoy of Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Gharib, were killed in clashes with supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party. The incident has also heightened tensions between the two rival Druze parties - the PSP led by former MP Walid Joumblatt, and the Lebanese Democratic Party headed by MP Talal Arslan. Gharib belongs to the LDP. A political source had said Monday Hariri was determined to convene the Cabinet this week as he had promised, adding that the premier would make a decision in the next 24 hours. A political source familiar with the Qabr Shmoun incident said the widening rift between Joumblatt and Arslan over referring the case to the Judicial Council, the highest court tasked with handling very sensitive security cases, was posing a major stumbling block to reactivating the Cabinet. As part of his ongoing mediation attempts to find a resolution to the aftermath of the Qabr Shmoun incident, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim met Tuesday with President Michel Aoun to brief him on the outcome of his talks with various parties. Ibrahim did not speak to reporters after the meeting at Baabda Palace. “Ibrahim is continuing his meetings and contacts with various leaders to find a compromise to contain the reverberations of the Qabr Shmoun incident,” the source familiar with the case told The Daily Star.The source said one major sticking point that is preventing the Cabinet from meeting is that while Arslan is insisting on referring the case to the Judicial Council, Joumblatt staunchly opposes it. “Hariri also does not want the Judicial Council issue to be listed on the Cabinet agenda in order to avert a possible clash between the feuding parties,” the source said. “These developments rule out the possibility of a Cabinet session this week.” In the aftermath of the gunfight, Hariri postponed a Cabinet session earlier this month in order to avert a split among ministers on which court should be used to adjudicate the Aley clashes. While the LDP and its allies, the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah, have called for the incident to be referred to the Judicial Council, Parliament Speaker Berri, Hariri, the PSP and the Lebanese Forces are opposed to this, arguing that the case could be handled by the regular judiciary. But the case has been officially referred to the Military Tribunal after the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch concluded its investigation. Nonetheless, the Cabinet could still vote to refer it to the Judicial Council. Arslan has repeatedly called for a Cabinet vote on his request to refer the case to the Judicial Council, indicating he would accept the outcome of the vote. Amid the escalating rhetoric between the PSP and the LDP, the Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc called on Hariri to act to reactivate the Cabinet, warning that time was running out to find a resolution to the incident. “The Future bloc warns against engagement in political escalation and affirms that the deadline given to devise solutions [to the Qabr Shmoun incident] does not endure further extension and stalling,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by Sidon MP Bahia Hariri. “National and constitutional responsibilities require that the premiership act to settle the matter and take whatever it needs to set the wheel of government action into motion,” the statement said. While voicing support for Ibrahim’s mediation bid to find a judicial resolution to the Qabr Shmoun incident, the bloc warned that attempts to target Hariri and involve him in the current dispute were “regrettable and unacceptable and were bound to divert attention from real efforts being made to find a solution.” Earlier in the day, Arslan renewed his call for referring the Qabr Shmoun incident to the Judicial Council. “The Qabr Shmoun crime that targeted a minister and his convoy completely conforms to the classification of harming national security,” Arslan said in a series of tweets. Responding to opponents of referring the case to the Judicial Council, he said: “Why is this beating around the bush? Unless you wanted to push the Druze to a game of revenge and drowning the mountains in bloody strife that no one knows its consequences.” In what appeared to a response to Arslan, Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour from the PSP told a news conference: “There is no need for the Judicial Council.” He repeated the PSP’s call for the handover of wanted people from the LDP for their involvement in the incident after the PSP had handed over four men.