BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stood firm on their diametrically conflicting positions on the thorny issue of civil service appointments poising Lebanon for a prolonged Cabinet crisis, political sources said Friday.

A source close to Mikati denied reports that Speaker Nabih Berri, who had mediated in previous government rifts, had contacted Mikati over the crisis – which has brought the Cabinet to a standstill – that erupted during Wednesday’s Cabinet session.

“Mikati’s stance is still the same one announced in Tripoli Thursday,” the source told The Daily Star, signaling that the prime minister will not budge on his decision to suspend the Cabinet sessions before agreement is reached on a formula to stop the obstruction of the government’s work.

Mikati and Aoun’s ministers have blamed each other for the Cabinet’s paralysis and its failure to act on any major issues, including the long-awaited appointments to fill hundreds of vacant posts in the public administration and diplomatic corps.

A source close to Berri also said the speaker had not yet initiated moves toward breaking the Cabinet impasse, which threatens to plunge the country into a power vacuum

Government solidarity is badly needed to enable Lebanon to face a host of internal and external challenges, including the repercussions of the 11-month-old unrest in Syria on the country’s security and stability.

However, a political source said that he expected Berri, who maintains good ties with the feuding parties inside the Cabinet, to step in to try to defuse the crisis once angry tempers have calmed down.

“Behind-the-scene contacts have already begun in a bid to find a solution for the Cabinet paralysis. No one can afford to let the country sink into a government vacuum,” the source told The Daily Star.

Although he declined to elaborate, the source was apparently referring to contacts reportedly made by the three parties making up the majority in Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet – Aoun’s bloc, Berri’s Amal Movement and Hezbollah – to contain the crisis over the administrative appointments.

Mikati vowed Thursday to stay in office despite sharp differences with ministers from Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc over the issue of administrative appointments that led Wednesday to the suspension of Cabinet meetings.

Mikati implicitly accused Aoun’s ministers of obstructing the Cabinet’s work, saying he would not allow anyone to undermine the prime minister’s prerogatives. He also pledged not to resign or withdraw from serving Lebanon, saying it was time for the Cabinet to be productive and homogeneous.

Sources close to Mikati said the prime minister’s decision to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions was not aimed at escalation, “but at energizing the Cabinet’s work because the Cabinet cannot continue in this manner, when the government takes decisions and the [labor] minister refuses to sign it.”

“Prime Minister Mikati saw the need to sound the alarm bell in order for each party to assume its responsibility and change the mentality of dealing with the government’s achievements,” one source told The Daily Star.

However, Aoun’s FPM hit back at Mikati, blaming him for the Cabinet paralysis. “It was not Gen. Aoun who decided to paralyze the Cabinet’s work. Rather, it was the prime minister who, therefore, must revoke the decision to obstruct the people’s affairs,” FPM sources told The Daily Star.

The sources said that regardless of whether Mikati’s decision was legal or not, differences among Cabinet members cannot be resolved by reactions.

The sources added that if Mikati decided not to resign or withdraw, Aoun’s 10 ministers would also not resign or withdraw. They cited the participation of Energy Minister Gibran Bassil in Thursday’s meeting of the Ministerial Energy Committee chaired by Mikati in the Grand Serail and Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui’s visit to the Grand Serail Friday as proof that Aoun’s ministers were not withdrawing.

The sources said that no contacts had been made so far with Aoun over the Cabinet crisis.

“Any settlement with Gen. Aoun to resolve the Cabinet dilemma will not be done at the expense of his popular representation within the Maronite community in particular, and the Christian community in general,” the sources said.

The sources warned that if Mikati’s decision to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions was aimed at not giving Aoun a share in Christian public posts, “the situation would be difficult and the crisis would then be difficult to solve and probably lead to the government’s departure.”

However, taking a new firm position, Mikati reportedly said he would have resigned had it not been for the delicate situation in the region. He renewed his three NOs to visitors: “No to resignation, no to withdrawing and no to Cabinet sessions as long as the Aounist obstruction continues,” As-Safir newspaper reported Friday.

The paper further quoted Mikati as telling his visitors: “Had Lebanon and the Arab environs not been passing through delicate and difficult circumstances, I would not have been content with the suspension of the Cabinet’s sessions. I have affirmed that I will not resign or withdraw because of the prevailing local and regional situation. Had it not been for the sensitivity of this situation, I would have tendered my resignation because enough is enough.”

Metn MP Salim Salhab, a member of Aoun’s bloc, ruled out a solution for the Cabinet crisis before Mikati’s return from a visit to Paris scheduled on Feb. 9-10. “Prime Minister Mikati has no right from the legal and constitutional standpoints to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions,” Salhab told the Central News Agency.

Metn MP Ibrahim Kanaan, also a member of Aoun’s bloc, said the Cabinet crisis does not need mediation efforts, but the implementation of the Constitution. “The prime minister’s decision to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions is unsound and must be reversed. If Prime Minister Mikati is not in a hurry, we also are not in a hurry,” Kanaan said.