BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati ruled out Thursday that he would resign after a heated Cabinet session that was suspended a day earlier over the issue of administrative appointments.
“The question is not about suspending activities or resigning, I will not resign from serving my country but it is high time for the Cabinet to be productive,” Mikati said during a ceremony on the opening of the revamped port of Tripoli, north Lebanon.
"[Cabinet] is not a place for debate or scoring points or disruption This was behind the decision to suspend the Cabinet session [Wednesday] that was taken until we agree on a means of activating a productive government,” he added.
The country plunged into a Cabinet crisis Wednesday after Mikati abruptly ended a government session over sharp differences with ministers from Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc over the thorny issue of civil service appointments.
The heated debate that broke out Wednesday prompted President Michel Sleiman to suspend the Cabinet session on the request of Mikati.
In Tripoli, where Mikati hails from, the prime minister said his goal was to secure and maintain stability and said this is why he kept away from engaging in “useless debates” that he said the country could not handle.
“Some seek to disrupt the work of the Cabinet and this we reject on behalf of Lebanese and we should not waste time,” he added, in an apparent reference to ministers from MP Michel Aoun’ Change and Reform bloc.
Mikati’s statement echoed similar statement he made to As-Safir in an interview published Thursday.
Mikati told the Lebanese daily that his patience was wearing thin and that the government would remain suspended if the executive branch remained unproductive. He also warned he would uncover the names of those obstructing the government’s work.
“I have been patient for a while but patience has limits and it is time that the Lebanese know who is actually obstructing the work of Cabinet,” Mikati told the Lebanese daily.
“They accuse me of obstructing and they are the ones obstructing,” he said, in an apparent reference to Aoun’s ministers in Cabinet.
Mikati also proposed appointing Judge Elie Bekhaazi for the post of the head of the Higher Disciplinary Committee, traditionally reserved for Greek Catholics, after discussing with Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi the name along with that of judges Nada Asmar and Sabah Suleiman.
He also nominated Odette Antoun as the government representative at the committee after saying that he also discussed three names with Qortbawi.
During the interview, Mikati said that he had suggested names for the appointments in accordance with the specified mechanism adopted in Cabinet, but to his surprise, they were rejected by MP Michel Aoun’s ministers.
“They want everything to pass through them or not at all,” Mikati said.
“[If] they want a productive government then let everyone should show responsibility. We want work and productivity and they want to obstruct everything and I will not allow that,” he added.
Meanwhile, Energy and Water Minister Jibran Bassil responded to Mikati, saying Aoun’s ministers have the right to object to any proposed names.
“The name he [Mikati] proposed had never been proposed before: it just landed out of nowhere and outside the legal framework of appointments. If the prime minister wants to practice his prerogatives and propose one or more names but not in accordance with the mechanism [of appointments] then it is our prerogative to decide to agree or not,” Bassil told As-Safir.
“The one who is keen on implementing the Constitution should know that the decision is for the Cabinet and not the prime minister alone,” Bassil added.