Bassil Meets Nasrallah, Hints Aoun’s Bloc May Boycott Cabinet Session
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil did not deny on Sunday that he had met with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Monday.
The meeting took place shortly after cabinet rejected Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ proposal over the wage hike.
Bassil hinted to al-Jadeed television that a new phase of agreements has been launched between MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, Hizbullah, and the AMAL movement.
He did not reveal whether Aoun himself had also met with Nasrallah.
The energy minister quoted Nasrallah as saying that he understands the Change and Reform bloc’s demands and supports them.
Furthermore, Bassil hinted that Aoun’s ministers may boycott Monday’s cabinet session, which is dedicated to studying the parliamentary electoral law.
He did not give further details over the reasons of the possible boycott.
Al-Liwaa said that proposal to adopt proportional representation in the law may not be advocated in light of Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat’s opposition to it.
Bassil called on the “current majority in cabinet to prove that it is in fact a majority and demonstrate that it takes decisions and does not simply bide its time.”
He revealed that he received “guarantees from Hizbullah that the majority’s role will be reactivated.”
“This is why we will dismiss what happened over the wage hike in the previous session,” he added.
“We believe the wage hike decree to be part of the bigger picture and we will therefore not linger on small details,” stressed the minister.
Last week, the cabinet approved a wage hike other than the decree proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, where minimum wage increased by LL100,000 to LL600,000, salaries under LL1 million by 30% up to a LL200,000 increase, and salaries above LL1 million by a 20% increase up to LL275,000.
A few weeks ago, Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc boycotted a cabinet session in protest over the way their proposals were being handled.
The government has recently discussed a draft law proposed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on adopting the proportional representation system in the upcoming elections, under which Lebanon would be divided into 10 to 14 medium-sized electorates.
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