Minister of Tourism and Economy Clash over Administrative Appointment in Lebanon

The debate that took place between Minister of Tourism Walid Nassar and Minister of Economy Amin Salam was the star of the cabinet session par excellence, especially after the talk that was leaked about the discussion that took place between the two men.

According to special information for “Al-Nashra”, the Minister of Tourism’s implementation of the decision issued by the Council of Ministers in its previous session regarding Lebanon’s participation in the Qatar Agricultural Expo, which authorized the Minister of Tourism to appoint the administrative staff, angered the Minister of Economy.

In the details, Nassar implemented the decision of the Council of Ministers and appointed both the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Louis Lahoud, and the Director General of the Ministry of Economy, Muhammad Abu Haidar, among the administrative staff, so Minister Salam objected, considering that there was an infringement on the powers, noting that Nassar had contacted all the concerned ministers to put them in the atmosphere of appointment The administrator, among them, called Salam, but the latter sent him a message that he was busy. The next day, he sent a message to Minister Nassar that his decision was an infringement of powers, and that he would ask the caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, to retract it. Nassar clearly informed him that he had administratively implemented the cabinet’s decision.

According to the sources, this reality prompted Nassar to put Miqati in the midst of what is happening, so he contacted him before the session, asking him to act according to what he saw in the interest of Lebanon, and asked him to take the floor in today’s session, especially since words reached Nassar’s ears, which he conveyed to a number of ministers, stating that the Minister of Tourism wants To offer a “benefit” to his brother Ziyad Nassar, which he considered paralyzing fabrications of peace against Nassar and his brother; Therefore, the Minister of Tourism asked Mikati to speak at the beginning of the session, but Mikati wished Nassar to speak at the end of the session, and this is what happened.

Follow-up sources tell the scenes that Nassar actually took the floor before the session ended, and explained to Mikati that he had implemented and enforced the decision of the Council of Ministers, so he issued an administrative decision in implementation of the government’s decision (attached below), explaining that his mandate came as a result of his long and great experience in the field of international conferences, reminding everyone at the government table On the day he was appointed minister, he resigned from all his duties in private companies and made a decision not to take any work with the public sector.