Al-Mustaqbal Says Aoun Lost on 3 Fronts, Blames him for Adjournment of Legislative Session

The al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed on Friday that Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun lost on three fronts when the March 14 lawmakers withdrew from a parliamentary session the day before.

Al-Mustaqbal sources told An Nahar that Aoun lost Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, failed to win support for a $5.9 billion cabinet spending bill, and witnessed the removal of the Value Added Tax on red and green diesel, a move rejected by Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

Nahhas, who is loyal to Aoun, resigned after he refused to sign a controversial transportation allowance decree for being “illegal.” Media reports said that the MP had struck a deal to submit Nahhas’ resignation to Premier Najib Miqati in return for garnering a majority support inside parliament for a draft law proposed by a member of his bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan to legalize the allowance.

However, the draft law wasn’t discussed at parliament after the March 14 MPs withdrew from the session to protest a March 8 demand to clinch a legislative vote on the spending bill, saying they would not support it if the parliament fails to legalize $11 billion in extra-budgetary spending made from 2006 to 2009 by the governments of former PMs Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

Also Thursday, parliament lifted the Value Added Tax on red and greed diesel, a move rejected by Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law.

The sources wondered what the stance of Aoun was on Speaker Nabih Berri’s proposal to form a parliamentary committee to study the spending made by previous governments and coming up with a solution ahead of a parliamentary session on March 5.

According to al-Liwaa daily, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat is mediating between Berri and Saniora, who is currently the head of al-Mustaqbal bloc, to resolve the controversy on the spending and come up with a comprehensive settlement to the issue.

Sources close to Saniora also told An Nahar that negotiations were carried out between the March 8 and 14 forces for three days before the parliamentary session to settle the $5.9 billion and $11 billion spending.

But when Berri proposed to Aoun a draft-law suggested by Saniora, the Change and Reform bloc leader rejected it, they said, blaming Aoun for the withdrawal of the March 14 MPs from the session and its adjournment to March 5.

Saniora backed a proposal by Berri to form the parliamentary committee that would seek to find a solution before the next legislative session, the sources added.