Jumblat Dispatches Abu Faour to Hariri with 'Initiative' to Solve Aoun-Berri Row

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat dispatched MP Wael Abu Faour to the Grand Serail on Thursday reportedly carrying an initiative to solve the differences between President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri over the officers seniority decree.

“I put forward the idea of a solution to Prime Miniser Saad Hariri. The proposal is open for discussion and it is at his disposal,” said Abu Faour while leaving the Grand Serail.

Reports confirmed that the initiative was “worthy of attention and could be discussed.”

On Wednesday, Jumblat revealed that Berri has sent him “a solution plan with Abu Faour who will submit it to Hariri.”

“The solution plan is aimed at returning things to the constitutional course,” Jumblat had noted.

The PSP chief described the disputed decree issued by President Michel Aoun as unnecessary, throwing his support behind Speaker Nabih Berri in the ongoing spat.

Aoun and his aides have argued that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any “financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued against.

Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons.

The officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun’s military government from Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993 before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.