Cabinet should put the contentious issue of June’s deadly shootout in Aley to one side and focus on pressing agenda items, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said.
According to the state-run National News Agency, Geagea said Saturday night during a dinner that “Cabinet should be meeting every day to take the steps necessary to rescue the country,” and “all controversial issues must be set aside.”
Cabinet has failed to meet for more than a month due to the fallout from the deadly shootout in Aley that left two men dead. Ministers are split over which judicial institution should try the case.
Talal Arslan, the head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, is calling for it to be handled by the Judicial Council, a high court for sensitive cases, claiming that the incident was an ambush on Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Gharib, who is allied with the LDP. He is backed by his allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah.
On the other hand, rival Druze leader Walid Joumblatt opposes Arslan’s request. He is backed by allies including the LF and Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement.
Geagea has repeatedly said that his opposition to the case’s referral to the Judicial Council is based on a fear that the investigative judge, which will be appointed by a Justice Minister who belongs to the FPM, will make a biased ruling.
In his speech Saturday night, Geagea accused those advocating for the Judicial Council of holding up important government work “at a time when the country needs attention at every moment.”
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Among the pressing items on Cabinet’s agenda are a plan to manage Lebanon’s waste and issues relating to last year’s CEDRE donor conference.
Geagea addressed a third critical issue set to be discussed by Cabinet: appointments to a number of key public and administrative posts.
At its next session, Cabinet is set to make appointments to a range of public and administrative posts, including naming the head of the Shura Council, the secretary-general of the Justice Palace and the public prosecutor.
The LF leader said that his party was not seeking to achieve anything in particular from the appointments and that he wanted them to be made “following the proper mechanism.”
Geagea has previously accused FPM head Gebran Bassil of attempting to monopolize Christian posts, leading Geagea to send an envoy to President Michel Aoun, who founded the FPM, to complain about Bassil’s behavior.
He said that he had told Hariri, when asked how he would respond if none of the appointments were made from the LF’s share, that “we don’t want anyone for us."
“The appointments mechanism allows people to be hired for [the good] of the whole country,” he added.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
