In an interview with As-Sharq Al-Awsat on Monday, Speaker Nabih Berri reproached Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri for his decision not to participate in the cabinet, if the March 8 were to win the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Hariri had said in an interview with LBC television on Thursday  that were majority to prevail in the coming elections he would not accept a cabinet in which the minority was given veto power.

Berri also said there was “no need to submit the law of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to the parliament, because it is now under the authority of the United Nations and the Security Council, which formed the court earlier.” 

Berri added that Lebanon could not reach a solution to the current tensions, unless it forged agreements among all parties, which, he said, had proved to be a good approach during the past three years.

He said he used “a legitimate trick” to justify his approval of draft laws proposed by the previous cabinet and he rejected Hariri’s accusation that said he had refused to receive draft laws, including ones aimed at ensuring reforms such as those proposed at the Paris III donor conference.

Berri also said that he had already received several draft laws and he called on the deputies to sign them, so as to turn them into proposed laws. These would then be submitted to parliament for full approval, he said.

Berri said he did not pass the laws related to Paris III because Prime Minister Fouad Siniora did not send them to him, and Berri expressed his readiness to cooperate on the issue.  

Berri said the draft budgets of the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 would be included in the 2009 budget, which is still being discussed in the cabinet.

-NOW Staff