Miqati Rejects Aoun’s Threats, Says Saudi Officials Didn’t Criticize his Performance
Premier Najib Miqati rejected threats made by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to withdraw his ministers from the cabinet if it didn’t approve the electricity plan, saying this could create a precedence that would turn the government useless.
In remarks to As Safir daily published Monday, Miqati said: “This equation is totally rejected. Accepting it would create a dangerous precedence on the level of institutional work.”
“Any minister could later threaten that he would quit if the cabinet doesn’t approve his project,” he said.
Aoun has proposed a draft law that allocates $1.2 billion to his son-in-law Energy Minister Jebran Bassil to build power plants that would generate 700 megawatts of electricity.
The cabinet on several occasions failed to approve it after ministers loyal to Aoun rejected demands by other ministers to form a committee that would oversee the spending of the funds.
Miqati told As Safir that a consensual solution should be found before a cabinet session scheduled to be held on Sept. 7. The government should “put some make-up on the face of the bill,” he said in reference to ongoing negotiations to settle the issue.
The differences between cabinet ministers prove that the government is not one-sided, the premier said. “We all want electricity and it’s not right to say that some are with it and some are against it.”
Asked about his visit to Saudi Arabia, Miqati said that he heard “very acceptable” remarks from Saudi officials whom he met there as he performed the Omra.
Although he didn’t meet King Abdullah and the officials expressed some reservations on the way he was appointed a PM, Miqati said that the personalities whom he held talks with did not make any negative remarks on his performance.
About the issue of false witnesses in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination case, the prime minister said: “We are now following up the course of the international tribunal. If it turns out that it relied on the testimony of false witnesses, then we would act.”
“But apparently it (the tribunal) has until now relied on other things,” he said in reference to the indictment published by the court which is based mainly on the circumstantial evidence of telecommunications data.
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