BEIRUT: In an escalation of his position on the two-week-old government crisis, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said Tuesday that the Cabinet would not meet before a bylaw is drafted to define who exercises executive authority.

Aoun again accused Prime Minister Najib Mikati of violating the Constitution when he suspended the Cabinet’s sessions on Feb. 1 following a dispute with ministers from Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc over appointments of Christians to key posts in the public administration.

Mikati has signaled that if Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ signed the transportation allowance decree it could revive the Cabinet’s work. Nahhas is one of Aoun’s 10 ministers in Mikati’s 30-member Cabinet.

Speaking to reporters after chairing his bloc’s weekly meeting at Rabieh, north of Beirut, Aoun announced the formation of a committee to draw up a draft proposal for a Cabinet bylaw.

Aoun said when Mikati suspended the Cabinet’s sessions, it was not because of Nahhas’ refusal to sign the transportation allowance decree, but because of differences over the administrative appointments.

Citing some alleged constitutional violations, Aoun said: “The problem did not arise from this decree but from the practice of governance. There will be no return to the Cabinet’s [meetings] in the absence [of a bylaw] to define who exercise executive authority in Lebanon.”

He stressed the need for regular functions of state institutions according to laws and the Constitution.

Aoun said that Nahhas has prepared a draft law to make the transportation allowance legal and is waiting for a Cabinet meeting. “But he [Mikati] has made it [the signing of the transportation decree] a condition for the resumption of the Cabinet’s [sessions],” he said.

“This subject [transportation allowance bill] does not justify the violation of Article 70 in the Constitution and Article 65 pertaining to the Cabinet’s meetings. They are all gross violations which the prime minister must not commit. He should be an example for how to the respect of the Constitution and laws,” Aoun said.

“It is a matter that relates to the respect of laws and the Constitution. They want the [labor] minister to do something that is illegal. When the prime minister wanted to suspend the Cabinet’s sessions, it was because of the issue of appointments rather than the transportation allowance,” he added.

Aoun spoke of what he called “a flaw” in the exercise of executive authority. “There are alliances that are forged beyond the law and the Constitution and which are obstructing the Cabinet’s work,” Aoun said, clearly referring to a reported agreement between Mikati and President Michel Sleiman during the Cabinet’s sessions.

Nahhas has refused to sign the decree contending that it should be made legal first by Parliament.

Mikati has implicitly accused Aoun’s ministers of obstructing the Cabinet’s work, saying he will not allow anyone to undermine the prime minister’s prerogatives. He has since said that he will not resume Cabinet sessions before agreement is reached on a formula to make the government more productive.