(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 6 - Lebanon's Prime Minister
Najib Miqati today held a meeting with Parliament chairman Nabih
Berri, in an attempt to find a solution for the political crisis
that has been dragging on since last week. The government has
stopped working due to a conflict on the appointment of several
ambassadors and many officials in the public sector.
'We will resume the cabinet sessions once we are certain
that the government can be productive,'' Miqati said after the
meeting, indicating that no solution was found yet. The crisis
started on Wednesday, when Miqati suspended a government meeting
after Ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement, the Christian
party led by Michel Aoun and part of the pro-Syrian coalition,
left the meeting over the appointments. Since that moment, the
Prime Minister has refused to convene a new session. It seems
unlikely that he will do so before leaving for a visit to Paris
on Thursday.
''The decision,'' the Premier explained, ''was taken to
convince everyone to act responsibly and to use their energy
positively, not negatively, to manage State affairs."
''I have given Berri my impressions and he has taken the
necessary time to open contacts,'' the Premier said after
today's meeting with the chairman of the Lebanese Parliament.
But according to the website of newspaper An Nahar, Berri does
not seem willing to intervene in the conflict.
According to newspaper L'Orient le Jour, Miqati may take
advantage of this pause in the government's activities to dodge
several urgent decisions regarding the difficult relation with
Syria. The newspaper underlines that Syria, which has always had
a strong influence on Lebanon, has asked the Lebanese government
to take a clear stance on its support to President Bashar al
Assad and to use the armed forces to close off its border with
Syria to keep weapons from being smuggled to the rebels.
The Lebanese government will also have to give its opinion
on another delicate question: the extension of the mandate of
the special UN tribunal that investigates the murder of former
Premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005, which has already indicted four
members of the pro-Syrian Shiite militias and pro-Iranian
Hezbollah. (ANSAmed).
