BEIRUT: February will see President Michel Sleiman try to restart the stalled National Dialogue process by holding a series of bilateral meetings with leading politicians, as Baabda Palace contends with a series of thorny domestic issues and regional developments.
Sources close to Baabda Palace told The Daily Star that Sleiman met with politicians in recent weeks, and the sessions led to the conclusion that the country requires a national salvation plan to treat the ruptured relations between the March 14 and March 8 camps.
The sources said that this was especially critical because developments in Syria and the rest of the region had shown that some countries were trying to involve Lebanon in the struggle between contending axes in the Middle East.
The sources said Sleiman had informed the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Ghadhanfar Roknabadi, that the recent statements by a high ranking general, Qassem Soleimani, which touched on south Lebanon, were not helpful in such a climate, as they represented a flagrant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Soleimani was widely criticized by March 14 politicians for saying that Iraq and south Lebanon were under Iran’s influence, but Roknabai and other Iranian officials have maintained that the remarks by the commander of the Quds Force were misinterpreted.
The president, the sources continued, asked that the Iranian leadership be informed that such comments had dangerous repercussions for bilateral relations between Lebanon and Iran. Some local politicians used the incident to “launch an offensive against Iran and Hezbollah,” as one source put it.
As for Syria, Sleiman’s meeting Thursday with Nasri Khoury, the head of the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, was an opportunity to remind the official that the president, ever since his tenure as commander of the Army, has been keen on boosting Lebanon’s relationship with all Arab countries, led by Syria.
However, a series of incidents on the Lebanon-Syria border during Syria’s popular uprising, as the regimes forces pursue what they say are infiltrators, have been unhelpful, the sources said.
They added that such incidents must be followed up with diligence and treated according to the laws covering Lebanese-Syrian cooperation.
Domestically, as the Cabinet has faced infighting over issues such as the wage hike, and the revamping of the ailing electricity sector, the topic of appointments and promotions in the state bureaucracy continues to occupy Baabda Palace.
The sources said that Sleiman and the Maronite patriarch, Beshara Rai, are fully in agreement over the “larger goal” in the appointments process, namely restoring a 50-50 split between Muslims and Christians, based on the Taif Accord and the National Pact.
Speaker Nabih Berri is also involved in finding a solution to the appointments impasse, which has seen Sleiman at odds with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on the selection of a new head of the Judicial Council, the country’s highest legal post.
Berri has helped resolve the impasse when it comes to Grade Three political appointments, but a solution has yet to arise in the case of attaches at the Foreign Ministry, the sources said.
This group of public servants had originally been named in the Emigrants Ministry in the 1990s – before it was later merged with the Foreign Ministry – the officials were appointed without the customary examination process, and their status represents a conundrum for officials as they sift through several hundred files of appointments, transfers and promotions.
Sleiman and Mikati are adamant that seniority be the leading criterion in deciding whether the diplomatic attaches deserve promotion along with other colleagues.
The sources expressed surprise that Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour recently said the diplomatic appointments file had been completed.