Beirut, Dec. 12, 2022 (Xinhua) — Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced today (Monday) his agreement with Maronite Church Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Al-Rai to hold a ministerial consultation session to understand the steps of the next stage.
This was stated by Mikati to journalists after his meeting with the Patriarch, at a time when the country is experiencing a political crisis due to the refusal of the ministers of the Free Christian Patriotic Movement, loyal to former president Michel Aoun, to participate in the session last Monday of government.
Mikati said Al-Rahi drew his attention to the fact that “it was necessary to hold a consultation before holding the last session of the government.”
He indicated that he and Al-Rahi had agreed to “soon hold a consultation session with ministers to reach an understanding on the steps we will take in the next stage.”
Mikati stressed that his government “is responsible for an issue in which we have no other decision than to manage the affairs of the country and ensure the well-being and issues of citizens as much as possible”.
“We support consultations between all parties to overcome this difficult phase and our decision is to manage the affairs of the citizen and the state,” he said.
Mikati indicated that he assured Al-Rahi during the meeting that the last cabinet session was “constitutional” and that it was “non-sectarian” and that “there was representation of all sects in the cabinet session”, noting that the provisional government is responsible for “running the affairs of the country”.
He said he sensed “the patriarch’s extreme will to get a president elected as soon as possible, which is Parliament’s responsibility.”
On December 5, the transitional government held an extraordinary meeting, the first since the end of former President Michel Aoun’s mandate at the end of last October, in which it approved the “urgent needs” in the presence of 17 out of 24 ministers, despite the boycott of Christian ministers (Free Patriotic Movement) led by the president, the former Michel Aoun, from a “constitutional and statutory point of view”.
Ministers’ rejection and boycott of the cabinet meeting came amid political and sectarian division over the legitimacy of its convening as the government resigned during the president’s vacancy.
Dissensions from the country’s political forces prevented the formation of a new government led by Mikati, after Parliament appointed him last June, following the resignation of his government shortly after the parliamentary elections last May.
The dissents of the political forces have also prevented the election of a new president of the country to succeed former president Michel Aoun, despite the fact that parliament held 9 sessions for this purpose between the end of last September and 8 this December.
Lebanon had seen a presidential vacancy in previous times, but it is the first time it has seen a presidential vacancy under an interim government, noting that the constitution stipulates that in the event of a presidential vacancy, the cabinet collectively assumes the powers of the President.
Since 2019, Lebanon has been suffering from continuous tensions amid political, economic, financial, health and housing crises, the worst in its history.
