BEIRUT: The Cabinet Monday discussed the thorny issue of security and military appointments amid warnings that failure to resolve the dispute over the border town of Arsal could spark a new civil war.

Statements made by a number of ministers showed that the Cabinet’s main parties were entirely in disagreement on how to deal with ISIS and Nusra Front militants entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.

March 8 ministers see the outskirts of Arsal as an area occupied by the militants and that the state must work to liberate it.

However, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour from MP Walid Jumblatt’s bloc warned that the Arsal dispute could be the spark, like the Ain al-Rummaneh bus (that ignited the 1975-90 Civil War), for new strife.

Abu Faour said the Arsal issue could not be discussed in one or two Cabinet sessions. “This issue needs a dialogue. We have informed the prime minister and the Parliament speaker of our readiness to help make such a dialogue a success,” he said.

“The importance of [inter-Lebanese] dialogue is for Hezbollah and the Future Movement to decide if they want to take the country to the unknown, or to agree to prevent the situation in Syria from spilling over into Lebanon,” he said. He added that without support from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah, “we cannot reach a compromise” over the Arsal dispute. Abu Faour noted that since Syria and Hezbollah now control Arsal’s outskirts following their military advances in the Qalamoun mountain range, “the fighting will spread to Lebanese territories because the gunmen will launch attacks on Syrian forces and Hezbollah.”“If no agreement is reached among the Lebanese parties to ward off such a war, we are threatened with a civil war,” Abu Faour said.

A terse statement issued after the Cabinet meeting reflected lingering sharp differences among the ministers over the appointment of top security and military officers and dealing with the militants based on Arsal’s outskirts.

Ministers engaged in a “thorough” discussion of topics which the Cabinet began debating last Thursday, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige told reporters after the meeting at the Grand Serail.

Following the meeting, which lasted nearly four hours, it was decided to follow up the discussion at a Cabinet session next Thursday, he said.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam, who chaired the session, demanded that the issue of Arsal should be separated from that of the security and military appointments.

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel told reporters before the session that the matter of appointing a new Army chief and head for the Internal Security Forces should be separated since those are the responsibilities of the defense and interior ministers respectively. “If we do not agree on the appointments, extension is the solution,” Moqbel said.

His position is fiercely opposed by ministers from MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, which is pushing for the appointment of new Army and ISF chiefs.

“Appointments remain a priority for us,” said Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, who belongs to the FPM.

Hezbollah backs its FPM allies on the issue of security and military appointments. “Hezbollah’s position concerning the appointments issue is supportive ... of the Free Patriotic Movement,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Fneish from Hezbollah told reporters before walking into the session.

Ministers from the FPM and Hezbollah have demanded in previous Cabinet sessions that the Army should be granted a free hand to oust ISIS and Nusra Front militants from Arsal’s outskirts. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has also vowed to liberate Arsal’s outskirts from the militants if the Lebanese state fails to do so.

However, Hariri and Future Movement ministers and officials have warned Hezbollah against attacking Arsal, saying that protection of the town is the responsibility of the Lebanese state and Army.

The next Cabinet session Thursday is deemed crucial because it comes a day before the term of ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous expires.

Aoun, who has warned the government against extending the terms of the Army and ISF chiefs, is lobbying for the appointment of his son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Unit, as Army commander replacing Gen. Jean Kahwagi, who retires on Sept. 23.

Moqbel hit back at Aoun, who has lambasted the defense minister over his stance on the appointment of a new Army chief. “I want everyone to know that Samir Moqbel, the Greek Orthodox, is not afraid of intimidation or threats. Everyone knows that the general [Aoun] is seeking to appoint his son-in-law in the [Army Command] post,” Moqbel said after meeting Beirut Metropolitan Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias Audi.

In his weekly article in the Progressive Socialist Party’s electronic Al-Anbaa newspaper, Jumblatt called for a full package in the military and security appointments in order to avoid a Cabinet paralysis and preserve internal stability.

Separately, a special envoy of Pope Francis met with Salam and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil to discuss developments in Lebanon, particularly the yearlong presidential vacuum.

Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, the former foreign minister of the Holy See, arrived here Friday for talks with Lebanese officials in the Vatican’s latest attempt to break the presidential deadlock. He has already met with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai.

Mamberti hoped that rival Lebanese factions would be able through dialogue to resolve the presidential crisis.