Berri Says Cabinet Mechanism 'Paralyzing' it, Considers it Dead End

Speaker Nabih Berri considered on Monday that the mechanism that the cabinet adopted to regulate its work amid the presidential vacuum is paralyzing it and prompting each minister to be in control.

“We reject attempts to paralyze the cabinet... But unfortunately the followed mechanism doesn't interpret the constitution and the jurisdictions of the government amid the presidential vacuum,” Berri pointed out.

Cabinet decrees require the approval of its 24 ministers in accordance with an agreement reached last month in light of the vacuum at Baabda Palace.

“The cabinet should replace the president therefore any decision should be approved by half-plus-one or the two-thirds majority,” the speaker pointed out.

He described the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam as “deadlocked” due to the followed mechanism.

Salam reportedly refuses to call for a cabinet session anew over sharp differences among ministers that are threatening the fate of the government.

Concerning the launching of rockets from South Lebanon towards Israel over the weekend, Berri lamented it as “useless.”

“Launching sporadic rockets is useless and doesn't serve the battle,” he pointed out.

“It is an attempt to involve Lebanon in the battle.”

Two rockets were fired Sunday night from southern Lebanon towards Israel, in the third such attack in four days, drawing an Israeli retaliation.

Israel had filed a complaint to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which monitors the border between Lebanon and Israel, after Friday's attack.

Israeli military officials said they believed the attack was carried out by a small Palestinian group in an act of solidarity with militants from Gaza's Hamas movement engaged in a deadly confrontation with the Israeli army which began on Tuesday.

H.K.

G.K.