Salam Adamant to Implement Cabinet Decisions

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has stressed that decisions taken by the majority of cabinet members will be implemented despite attempts by some parties to obstruct them.

“Even in the presence of a president, the Constitution grants him a time limit to review the decisions. They will be implemented when the deadline expires,” Salam told al-Akhbar daily in an interview published on Tuesday.

Salam's remarks were seen as a direct response to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun's insistence that decrees issued by the cabinet after garnering the signatures of 18 ministers are not legal.

Aoun, who argues that the decrees infringe on the powers of the Christian president, held on Monday phone conversations with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Amin Gemayel of the Kataeb Party and Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh.

In the interview with al-Akhbar, Salam said that the rival parties should resolve their differences outside the cabinet.

“Settle your scores somewhere else and not in this government,” Salam told the parties represented in the cabinet.

The PM told al-Akhbar that on several occasions, he gave time for the rivals to reach settlements. “But no one is responding.”

When Baabda Palace became vacant “we agreed on unanimity inside the cabinet to avoid the obstruction of productivity … Then we agreed for consensus to be the basis of the government’s work,” said Salam.

“But this also drowned us in paralysis,” he stated.

“Are we able to remain in this paralysis that is being imposed on us?” Salam asked.

“If I will continue to assume my responsibilities, then I should practice them and not observe them,” he said.

G.K.

D.A.