BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the country’s banking sector will implement sanctions against Syria, Al-Hayat reported Friday.
“They [Syria's allies in the government] cannot force Lebanon's banking sector to violate sanctions [on Syria] because it is in the interest of the sector not to violate them,” Mikati told the daily in an interview.
“[My] responsibility is to preserve stability internally and Lebanon's relations with all countries except for Israel, and I am not willing to be in
a quarrel with anyone,” he added.
Lebanon has refrained from voting on measures that would tighten punitive sanctions by the Arab League against Syria, with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour saying the country would not endorse such measures.
Mikati and other officials have attempted to shield Lebanon’s already sluggish economy, particularly its banking sector, from further setbacks. His recent success in having secured Lebanon's share of the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which had been a divisive issue in the country, is widely seen as having averted international sanctions.
Analysts say sanctions would have crippled Lebanon financially and economically.
Mikati also told the Pan-Arab daily that he would not allow Lebanon to become a conduit for plots against any Arab country, referring to the growing Arab and international pressure on neighboring Syria as President Bashar Assad continues his lethal crackdown on protesters.
Lebanon has adopted a policy of disassociation from the events in Syria over fears that any other course of action could affect Lebanon adversely.
Mikati also slammed Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ delay in signing a decree governing the transportation allowance.
“The most important issue is that the Cabinet had made a decision through the majority of 19 ministers asking the labor minister to sign a decree for the transportation allowance; but he has yet to sign it,” Mikati said.
On Dec. 22, the Cabinet approved a wage hike plan that increased the minimum wage to LL675,000. The increase was supposed to have gone into effect, but Nahhas has refused sign a temporary decree that clears the way for the new measure.
Nahhas, part of the Change and Reform bloc, has voiced his disapproval of including the transportation fee as part of the minimum wage, arguing that the allowance requires a separate decree.
Mikati, who suspended Cabinet sessions two weeks ago over sharp differences with Change and Reform bloc ministers, including Nahhas, said he would restart Cabinet meetings only when violations of protocol by the ministers had stopped, and productive work could be resumed.
“No return to Cabinet until we put an end to such infringements,” he added.
Mikati and head of the bloc MP Michel Aoun have accused each other of obstructing the work of the Cabinet.
“Implementing Cabinet decisions is a basic rule and whoever does not like it can quit,” Mikati told the pan-Arab newspaper on board a plane heading to Paris for the prime minister’s two-day visit to the French capital.