BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has criticized Prime Minister Najib Mikati over the Cabinet crisis and said Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas has violated government policy.

“I will stick to my stance. I will not take part in mediation efforts to [solve] the government crisis because Mikati’s decision to suspend Cabinet sessions is unjustified,” Berri said in remarks published Monday by As-Safir newspaper.

Mikati suspended Cabinet sessions earlier this month after a heated dispute with Change and Reform bloc head MP Michel Aoun over appointments of Christians to key posts in the public sector.

Berri also slammed Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, a member of Aoun’s bloc, for his refusal to sign a bill concerning transportation allowances.

As-Safir cited recent visitors who met with Berri as revealing that he said Nahhas' non-signing of the transport allowance bill is a transgression against the institution of the Cabinet with dangerous repercussions for Cabinet work.

Berri, according to his visitors, is dealing with demands by head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun as a “Christian and national need to fortify the option of resistance and the fundamentals of the relationship with Syria in the face of international attempts.”