Lebanese Ministry of Information
Cabinet is set to meet Wednesday to discuss a long-waited electricity reform plan, including controversial proposals to rent two additional power barges that will be top of the 67-item agenda.
Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil confirmed that the electricity reform plan would be discussed during the Cabinet session chaired by President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace.
“We are committed to providing electricity to citizens at the lowest cost and [we are] committed to all the components of the plan that were approved seven years ago,” Abi Khalil, from the Free Patriotic Movement, told reporters after the weekly meeting of the party’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc chaired by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
Abi Khalil has also previously promised that the new electricity plan would provide Lebanon with seven additional hours of electricity.
However, the electricity reform plan has been met with opposition since it was passed by the Cabinet on March 28, particularly from FPM ally the Lebanese Forces, Speaker Nabih Berri and the Kataeb Party.
The first phase of the reform plan would include bringing in two new barges. This power would supplement the three additional hours of energy generated by two floating power ships from Turkish company Karadeniz Holdings that have operated since 2013 and recent upgrades to existing plants in Zouk Mikael and Jiyyeh.
Some ministers have expressed skepticism about the plan, particularly due to its high-proposed cost. Some concerns have also been raised regarding a lack of transparency.
Berri insisted that the tender to find companies to operate the barges should first and foremost pass through the government-controlled tender department. The speaker described the deal as an attempt to “fill pockets [with money].”
Meanwhile, at an iftar speech Tuesday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri shunned political and religious extremism. “Those trying to promote extremism, in politics or elsewhere, have no place among us,” the PM and Future Movement head said.
Vowing to reject those that try to use the legacy of the movement to coopt the future, he added “Everyone knows very well that the Future Movement was and will always be strong in the national equation.”
Also addressing recent political developments, Hariri added: “As I said before, settlements are not concessions. All politicians owe it to the country to make concessions.
“We reached a settlement that achieved two of the most important achievements in the history of the country over the last 30-years: The election of a president made in Lebanon and an electoral law made in Lebanon. These achievements are now engraved in the record of the Future Movement.”
Berri also said Tuesday that the new proportional vote law was the result of a “full consensual Lebanese compromise.” He stressed that as long as rival Lebanese political parties uphold consensus as a way of resolving problems, then there was no need to fear for Lebanon’s future.“This law is a real victory for all the Lebanese and for their accord. It has given a dose of optimism and created a climate of reassurance,” Berri said during a meeting with members of the Press Syndicate headed by its chairman Aouni al-Kaaki at his Ain al-Tineh residence. “We must uphold the Constitution and implementation of laws,” he added.
After its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc also praised the opening of an extraordinary session for Parliament to approve the 2017 draft state budget and the public sector’s salary scale bill.
“The bloc commended the efforts made by various political powers, first to achieve a consensus on a new electoral law and then to endorse the draft law in the Cabinet and refer it to Parliament, which played its legislative role, discussed [the draft law] and ratified it in a constitutional manner,” said a statement issued after weekly.
The bloc said Parliament’s ratification of the law would clear the way for “a large-scale democratic workshop to implement it and allow the Lebanese people to choose its representatives under a law based on proportionality.”
In discussing Aoun’s invitation to leaders of political parties represented in the government to meet at Baabda Palace Thursday to consult on key issues, the bloc “underlined the importance of launching righteous and courageous initiatives aimed at restoring the state authority and prestige as a prelude to discussing these initiatives and approving them in the Cabinet.”
The bloc underlined the need for finishing and approving the state budget in Parliament in order to “streamline public finances during the extraordinary parliamentary session in the hope that this would contribute toward boosting confidence in the economic and financial situation in the country.”
Abi Khalil also hailed the new vote law as “a big achievement” for the government. Referring to all-party talks to be chaired by Aoun at Baabda Palace Thursday, he said: “The next stage requires a comprehensive economic plan. We hope that the Baabda meeting [designed] to draw up a political program for the upcoming stage will draw up this plan.”
In an interview on MTV, Minister of State for Presidency Affairs Pierre Raffoul was asked why the Kataeb Party, among other parties and independents, were not invited for the Baabda meeting. “President Aoun will meet later with [politicians] not represented in the government. We did not exclude anyone from the government. They [Kataeb Party] chose to stay out [of the government] and this is their right. The president is for all the Lebanese,” he said.
However, the Kataeb Party deputy leader Salim Sayegh criticized the failure to invite them, asking “What is the meaning of the dialogue to be held in Baabda? Is it between the governing parties, or is it in a closed club?”
