BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam will not be postponing Thursday’s Cabinet session despite a decision by the Free Patriotic Movement to boycott the meeting, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon told a Lebanese daily.

In an interview published Wednesday by As-Safir, Pharaon said that he had proposed that the session be moved to a later date in order to avoid a political crisis.

However, Salam had said that the session will be held "in principle," as the majority of ministers will be attending.

FPM leader Gebran Bassil announced Tuesday that his party ministers would be boycotting Thursday’s Cabinet session as a warning to the government against forging ahead with plans to extend the mandate of Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi.

Minister of State Mohammad Fneish from Hezbollah refused to say whether he and his colleague, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan, would be boycotting in solidarity with their FPM allies.

“I have no answer now since we have not yet been informed of a Cabinet session Thursday,” Fneish told The Daily Star Tuesday.

Pharaon said that Salam was still making calls to ministers Wednesday to see if the session will take place.

Bassil warned Wednesday that the country could face a crisis over its sectarian-based political system after the Cabinet meeting, adding that any additional escalatory measures his party takes will largely depend on the government’s reaction to the boycott.

But a government source told the daily that all Lebanese sects would be represented in the Cabinet, despite the absence of FPM ministers.

“The boycotting of the [Foreign] Minister Gebran Bassil and [Education Minister] Elias Bou Saab means that a political component is absent, and not the Christian component,” the source said.

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel last Saturday extended the term of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Kheir by one year, overriding the FPM ministers’ strong opposition to military extensions during last week’s Cabinet session.

Moqvel had proposed three candidates to succeed Kheir during last Thursday's Cabinet session, but none received the required two-thirds majority vote, forcing him to extend the he secretary-general of the Higher Defense Council’s term.

Moqbel also hinted that he would lengthen Kahwagi's term, which is set to expire Sept. 30.

Referring to Kheir’s term extension , Bassil said: “This year we agreed on the name of a member of the Military Council and endorsed what the Sunnis and the Future Movement want because it is a Sunni post. But this year, we will not keep silent on the extension [of Kahwagi’s term] and we will do what is necessary to prevent it.”

Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb told As-Safir that the FPM’s move is further obstructing the country’s already-fragile political situation, saying that the only solution is for the immediate election of a president to fill to more than two-year vacuum.