Higher Islamic Council Member: Miqati to Discuss 'Measures' Against Qabbani over Elections Row

Prime Minister Najib Miqati will discuss with former premiers ways to take “personal measures” against Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani over a dispute on the Higher Islamic Council, a council member said Tuesday.

Mohammed Murad, who is close to al-Mustaqbal movement, told As Safir daily that Miqati stressed to an HIC delegation on Monday that Qabbani's call for the Council elections to take place on April 14 was illegal and inappropriate.

The Shura Council will suspend the elections as it did last time, Murad quoted Miqati as telling the delegation that visited him at the Grand Serail.

Last year, the Shura Council suspended a call for the elections after 21 HIC members, who are close to ex-Premier Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal movement, filed a challenge against Qabbani's invitation to hold the polls.

Differences between them spread when the 21 members extended the term of the council until the end of 2013 despite the objection of Qabbani, who argues that the extension is illegal and the council’s term has expired.

The Council elects the mufti and organizes the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s top Sunni religious authority.

Qabbani reiterated on Sunday that only the Mufti has the authority to call for the elections.

“He sets the date and urges the electoral bodies to vote for a new Council,” he stressed.

The mufti is refusing to hold any meetings at Dar al-Fatwa. But the deputy head of the council, Omar Mesqawi, said following the meeting with Miqati at the head of the delegation that talks focused on the possibility of holding an HIC session attended by Miqati and the former premiers.

“There is a single fact that we should acknowledge that the HIC is present and its term has been extended till the end of the year,” Mesqawi said.

The Mufti's ties with al-Mustaqbal deteriorated in 2011 when he met with a delegation from Hizbullah the same day the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indicted four party members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination.

Relations between the two sides were also shaken when the mufti met with Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali, whom al-Mustaqbal and the March 14 opposition alliance have on several occasions said should be expelled.