Cabinet to Meet on Wednesday but Participation of Aoun’s Ministers not Clear Yet

A cabinet session is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, a week after Premier Najib Miqati announced the postponement of the meeting and the transfer of funds to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Miqati’s sources confirmed to An Nahar daily that the council of ministers will convene on time at Baabda palace. But they rejected to discuss the details of the contacts aimed at convincing the ministers of Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc to end their boycott.

The ministers have said their participation in cabinet meetings depends on a set of conditions that the government and Miqati should meet.

But the sources said that a wage boost proposal made by the bloc’s minister Charbel Nahhas is on the cabinet agenda – a step towards meeting the other demands of the Change and Reform bloc.

Miqati’s visitors quoted him as saying that he “does not see any problem in Aoun’s demands” which are being put on the agenda of the council of ministers.

Despite Miqati’s remarks, Nahhas and Minister Fadi Abboud told al-Liwaa daily that the return of the ministers to the government hasn’t been settled yet.

He hoped that the government would assume its responsibilities towards the file of wages.

Al-Joumhouria quoted sources close to Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement as saying that the ministers won’t take part in Wednesday’s session because the government hasn’t so far changed its attitude.

After months of political wrangling, Miqati announced last Wednesday that he had transferred Lebanon's share of funding to the STL probing the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

His announcement was made only a few hours after saying a cabinet session set to discuss the funding was postponed.