Aoun exploits Nahhas resignation

BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun will withhold Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ resignation until Parliament passes a controversial decree governing the transportation allowance into law Wednesday.

Nahhas opted Tuesday to resign his post rather than surrender to Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s demand he sign the decree.

“I have received Minister Nahhas’ resignation and it is up to the Cabinet, and not to me, to deal with it,” Aoun told reporters after chairing a weekly meeting of his parliamentary Change and Reform bloc at his residence in Rabieh, north of Beirut. “Eventually, we will send the resignation to the Cabinet. From now on, the labor law and the wage hike will be organized as Nahhas wanted.”

Aoun said he has not yet decided on whether to accept Nahhas’ resignation, adding that he will send it to the Cabinet whenever he wants.“The decision to endorse [Nahhas’] resignation is still in my hands and when the resignation is sent to the Cabinet, it means we [the Change and Reform bloc] have accepted it,” he said.

In the meantime, sources at the Grand Serail said Mikati has not yet received Nahhas’ resignation letter and that the premiership was not concerned with his stepping down.

The sources said Parliament’s approval of the draft law presented by FPM MP Ibrahim Kanaan, which would authorize the Cabinet to set the transportation allowance, was linked to sending Nahhas’ resignation to the prime minister.

Sources close to the FPM said Tuesday night that Aoun insists he will send Nahhas’ resignation letter to the Cabinet only after Parliament has ratified a draft law on the transportation allowance.

Grand Serail sources said that meetings were ongoing to reach an agreement whereby Nahhas’ resignation would be sent to the premiership or the presidency in order to ask the acting Labor Minister Nicolas Fattoush later to sign the Cabinet decree and legitimize the transportation allowance through the draft law presented by Kanaan. They pointed out that if this did not happen, then the Cabinet would withdraw the draft law.

The sources did not rule out the possibility of implementing this agreement, which would lead to the resumption of Cabinet sessions and naming a replacement for Nahhas. A source said Aoun will name Greek Catholic lawyer Walid Azar for this post.

Sources close to Nahhas said that he was surprised by Aoun’s demands and the paper relayed to him by Baabda MP Alain Aoun.

The sources said that Nahhas was not aware of the understanding which the FPM leader said was reached between him and each of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Mikati ahead of Parliament’s session Wednesday on the approval of Kanaan’s draft law.

Parliamentary sources in Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc said that Alain Aoun failed in more than three hours to convince Nahhas to sign the Cabinet’s decision on the transportation allowance, preferring to sign his resignation letter and putting it at the disposal of the FPM leader.

Answering reporters’ questions, Aoun said that if the bloc approved Nahhas’ decision to resign, then his replacement would have to be from the FPM. He did not name the potential successor to Nahhas.

Aoun rejected the argument that the FPM did not back Nahhas in his attempts to legalize the transportation allowance decree. “We are still supporting Minister Nahhas. Of course, the new minister [replacing Nahhas] will be from the Free Patriotic Movement. Otherwise, we will return to the same Cabinet crisis,” Aoun said.

Nahhas’ resignation came on the eve of a crucial Parliament meeting which is expected to vote Wednesday on two draft laws – one prepared by Kanaan and another by Future Bloc MP Nabil de Freij – which would authorize the Cabinet to set transportation and education allowances.

Media reports said the two draft laws would be combined into one proposal to allow MPs from the March 8 and March 14 camps to ratify it during Wednesday’s legislative session, a move which would open the way to a resumption of Cabinet sessions stalled since Feb. 1.

Aoun said he had sought to reach “a legal solution” for the problem of the transportation allowance decree, which has been at the root of the Cabinet crisis since Nahhas refused to sign it, arguing that it was illegal.

“We supported Minister Nahhas in his decision to refuse to sign the decree because the Shura Council will send back illegal draft laws,” Aoun said.

He added that Wednesday’s Parliament session was a chance to make the Cabinet decision on the transportation allowance legal. He said he had reached agreement on this subject during his meeting with Berri last Friday and that a similar understanding was reached with Mikati.

“We agreed to continue the legal course if the draft law was challenged. We spoke with Nahhas, whom we thank for his services and cooperation with high efficiency. But his circumstances might not allow him to cooperate with us,” Aoun said.

Aoun has accused Mikati of violating the Constitution with the suspension of Cabinet sessions following a dispute with ministers from the Change and Reform bloc over appointments of Christians to key posts in the public administration. Aoun’s ministers rejected names proposed by Mikati to head the High Disciplinary Committee, a position traditionally reserved for Greek Catholics.

For his part, Mikati has defended his decision to suspend Cabinet meetings, saying the move was designed to protect state institutions.

Nahhas has been at the center of a political storm since last month, when he refused to sign a Cabinet decree officially approving a transportation allowance, arguing that it should be ratified by Parliament first.

Read more here:
Aoun exploits Nahhas resignation