Salam Blames Political Conflict for Waste Deadlock

The government failed on Thursday to agree on measures to manage the country's waste crisis, which Prime Minister Tammam Salam blamed on the political conflict as he issued a veiled warning that he could resort to resignation if the deadlock on several issues continued.

Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said following the session that was chaired by Salam at the Grand Serail that the PM described the country's environmental situation as a “disaster.”

Jreij said Salam told the cabinet that “the crisis erupted because over the years, there had only been temporary solutions.”

The premier urged all sides to put aside the political conflict and work for the benefit of the country, said the information minister.

He also urged all parties “to work with devotion to find a solution to the garbage crisis.”

Salam lamented that the political conflict was stopping a ministerial committee from tackling the issue although it is “exerting strong efforts” to resolve the waste crisis.

“If we don't find serious solutions to guarantee the continuation of the work of the cabinet in the absence of the president, then we will hit a dead-end,” the PM warned.

Salam also told the cabinet that he had “several options (on the table) and could resort to any of them if the deadlock continued,” said Jreij, in reference to a possible resignation.

No date was set for another session, a sign that any solution to the waste crisis or to the government's decision-making mechanism was not looming on the horizon.

The committee that is chaired by Salam found earlier this week a temporary solution to begin taking trash to several landfills in undisclosed locations. But its decision was met with severe criticism and protests by residents and local officials who refused the waste of Beirut and Mount Lebanon to be dumped in their areas.

The garbage crisis, which erupted after the closure of the Naameh landfill on July 17, came amid a gridlock in the cabinet over its decision-making mechanism.

The Free Patriotic Movement has stressed that its ministers should have the right to coordinate with Salam on setting the cabinet's agenda because they consider themselves as representatives of the president in his absence.

Their conditions intensified the tension between the different parties.

G.K.

M.T.