A senior ministerial source tells "Asharq Al-Awsat" that “the insistence of President Michel Aoun and his political heir, National Free Movement leader MP Gibran Bassil, on demolishing the last remaining bridges of communication with the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati raises a number of questions” about the position of “Hezbollah” and the validity of the claims that the party has instructed its two allied ministers, Mustafa Bayram and Ali Hamieh, to boycott Cabinet sessions if Mikati decides to convene it, in solidarity with the decision of the ministers aligned with Aoun and Bassil to boycott the session on the grounds that the powers of the presidency cannot be fully transferred to the Cabinet as a whole, since the government is not fully functional in the absence of a president.
The ministerial source reveals that Mikati has not received any position from “Hezbollah” in this regard, and that what has been circulated in this context has no basis in fact; especially since communication channels between them are open, and the party has never informed him of any position through media channels. He confirms that Mikati recently met with the political assistant to the Secretary-General of “Hezbollah,” Hussein Khalil, and the meeting was dedicated to discussing the current situation, in light of the role that the party plays to overcome the obstacles delaying the re-establishment of the current government.
The source points out that the party is not inclined to join the political escalation with Aoun preparing to leave the Baabda Palace for Rabieh, and states that the party did not change its stance after the completion of the maritime border delineation agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which requires monitoring its actions from the south to the events occurring in the region.
The source admits that the party is pressuring to rehabilitate the government, and that the meeting between its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Bassil last Wednesday discussed two main topics: the government file and the presidential election, which remains stuck in a deadlock. The same source confirms that the Nasrallah-Bassil meeting did not yield any progress, as the latter still clings to his conditions, both regarding the rehabilitation of the government and regarding convincing Bassil to lift the “veto” he imposed on the nomination of former MP Sleiman Frangieh, leader of the “Mard” movement. He notes: “It is not acceptable to approach the meeting with insistence from Bassil, from the perspective that the party has given the green light to its ally to escalate his position, starting from the day that coincides with Aoun's departure from the Baabda Palace to his home in Rabieh.”
He adds that what concerns the party is to rehabilitate the government to prevent the country from being plunged into constitutional and social chaos as Bassil has threatened; but, according to the information at hand, Bassil is not inclined to facilitate its formation and is in alignment with Aoun, which opens the door for dragging the country into further crises, having paved the way for this by inciting against Berri and Mikati under the pretext that the latter wants to take control of the state and seize the powers of the presidency with the support of the Speaker of Parliament.
Therefore, the remaining hours before Aoun leaves Baabda are unlikely to bring any surprises, according to the ministerial source, that could pave the way for government rehabilitation in light of Aoun and his son-in-law's initiative to escalate their positions against the duo Berri-Mikati. Accordingly, Mikati will not take the initiative to invite the Cabinet to convene, which he conveyed to ministers Walid Fayad and Walid Nassar, who informed him of their decision, along with the ministers they met with Bassil, to boycott Cabinet sessions.
In this context, "Asharq Al-Awsat" learned that Mikati reiterated to Fayad and Nassar that he has no intention of holding a Cabinet session, as he is not inclined to challenge this group or that, and that his concern is to manage citizens' affairs and conduct the state's business.
The ministerial source relays Mikati's statement that he aims for the ministerial meetings to activate governmental work, and he will not be the one to take the country into further escalation and crisis, as “we have enough problems already, and we do not want to import a new problem, although hastening the election of a president would restore order to the functioning of constitutional institutions, leading to a return of the country to its natural state.”
The source indicates that Mikati insists on not calling the Cabinet to convene except in cases of extreme necessity, which require the council to take a position regarding a major, transgressional issue related to the national security of the country or to a significant unforeseen event, stipulating at the same time the provision of the broadest political cover for its convening that exceeds the ministers to include spiritual references and political leaders not represented in the government.
The ministerial source doubts that Bassil has the capacity to disrupt the session if it is decided to convene due to extreme national necessity.
