BEIRUT: The Cabinet failed to meet Friday after nine ministers from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement thwarted a quorum with their boycott, a day after Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s declaration that he would resign if the government did not approve the funding of a U.N.-backed court next week.
Meanwhile, Aoun, who heads the second largest bloc in Parliament, threatened to withdraw his 10 ministers from the Cabinet in response to Mikati’s declaration to resign over the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and also over the government’s performance.
Five other ministers also stayed away either for personal, travel or sickness reasons, bringing the number of no-shows to 14. The 30-member Cabinet needs a quorum of a two-thirds majority to convene.
Culture Minister Gaby Layyoun, one of Aoun’s 10 ministers who was absent from the Cabinet session, told Elnashra website that the reason for their boycott was to protest the way items are put on the Cabinet’s agenda. “We have criticisms over the Cabinet’s work and many matters related to the agenda,” he said.
However, Mikati rejected the FPM ministers’ justifications for their boycott of the Cabinet session.
Mikati said that under the Constitution, the prime minister calls the Cabinet to meet, draws up its agenda and briefs the president beforehand on the topics included on the agenda.
“If the ministers’ statements were meant to try to create new norms at the expense of the balance laid down by the Taif Accord and consecrated by the Lebanese Constitution, or weaken the prime minister’s constitutional powers, this matter is entirely out of the question under any circumstances,” Mikati said in a statement issued by his media office Friday night.
“The current circumstances are extremely complicated and sensitive, and consequently cannot endure any adventures or bets that constitute a gateway for a further split in the country. All [parties] are required to cooperate and unite to protect this country and its people,” Mikati added.
The ministers’ boycott came five days before a crucial Cabinet meeting to vote on the contentious issue of paying Lebanon’s share to the STL’s annual budget amid signs that the funding would be blocked by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies who have a majority in the Cabinet. This would subsequently lead to Mikati’s resignation, thus throwing the divided country into further political malaise. The Netherlands-based STL is probing the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Fifteen ministers and Mikati assembled at Baabda Palace for the meeting that was supposed to resume discussion of a draft election law for the 2013 parliamentary elections.
“The boycott of 14 ministers is abnormal,” a ministerial source told The Daily Star.
Asked whether the boycott by Aoun’s ministers was meant as “a political message” in response to Mikati’s criticism of the FPM leader during a TV interview Thursday night, Hezbollah’s State Minister for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish said: “No comment.” He added that Hezbollah’s opposition to the STL and its funding has not changed.
Information Minister Walid Daouk said the absence of the 14 ministers did not entail any political significance, blaming the instance on personal, sickness and travel reasons.Ahead of the Cabinet session that was not held, Mikati met with President Michel Sleiman with whom he discussed “the general situation and the latest developments,” according to a statement released by Sleiman’s office.
Aoun hit back at Mikati’s threat to resign over the STL’s funding and hinted at the possible resignation of his 10 ministers.
“We are ready for all eventualities. We don’t accept to be threatened by anyone in the Cabinet,” Aoun said Friday night in an interview with OTV, the FPM’s mouthpiece. He defended his ministers’ boycott, saying if the Cabinet continued in this manner, there would be no need for his ministers to stay in it.
“We are the only ones who have the right to protest because all our projects are paralyzed. There is no productivity on the ground,” Aoun said. “We have 10 ministers but they do not give us the freedom to exercise our prerogatives. If we continue in this way in the Cabinet, there is no use for us to stay in it.”
In a surprise move that has apparently caught both allies and foes unawares, Mikati told LBCI TV Thursday night that he would resign if the Cabinet failed next week to approve the payment of Lebanon’s more than $30 million share to the STL’s budget. He also warned that failure to fund the tribunal would lead to the imposition of U.N. sanctions and the country’s isolation by the international community.
Mikati, facing mounting local and international pressure to honor Lebanon’s commitments to U.N. resolutions, including the STL’s funding, is racing against time to meet a Dec. 15 deadline to pay Lebanon’s dues to the court or face the possibility of a confrontation with the international community.
Mikati said the STL’s funding would be put up for a vote at a crucial Cabinet meeting on Nov. 30. Hezbollah and its March 8 allies, who hold a majority are expected to vote against it.
As part of his contacts to find a solution for the problem of the STL’s funding, Mikati met Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri. “The atmosphere was good,” a source close to Berri told The Daily Star.
The source said the speaker was working on a solution for the funding.
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