Naharnet - Hizbullah's Alleged Raid on Airport Prevails Over Cabinet Discussions - September 22, 2010

The five-hour long cabinet session on Tuesday mainly dealt with Hizbullah's "raid" on the Beirut airport during the arrival of former General Security Department chief Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed from Paris last week, An Nahar daily reported.

Media reports have said that vehicles with Hizbullah gunmen welcomed Sayyed at the airport tarmac on Saturday and party members ordered the VIP lounge opened without prior permit from the foreign ministry. The convoy then took the former general to his house in Jnah.

The cabinet also discussed the issue of the four generals who were jailed for four years without evidence about their involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Ministerial sources told An Nahar that March 14 cabinet members slammed their foes for targeting state institutions by the "security violation at the airport."

Hizbullah ministers snapped back, the sources said, and Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan went as far as saying that violations are taking place at the airport daily and go unnoticed.

The newspaper quoted ministers as saying that the airport and four generals' issues "revived" the national unity government. Even President Michel Suleiman at one point hoped that statements made outside the cabinet would be similar to the cool atmosphere that prevailed during the session at Baabda palace.

"Civil peace is a political responsibility to allow the security and military apparatuses to assume their responsibilities in preserving security," said Suleiman after two tense weeks that threatened to plunge the country into strife.

During the session, Premier Saad Hariri warned that political differences should not turn into attempts to destabilize public order or undermine the authority of state institutions.

An Nahar also said that Hariri rejected "devastating the country under the slogan of the right of the four generals."