Lebanon Didn’t Receive STL Funding Paper, Consultations Ahead of Strikes

Zeinab Essa

As the pace of social demands rises on the fire of various types of strikes, the Lebanese government tends to find solutions for the ancient pending crisis.
 
Meanwhile, the Mikati government is stuck between the anvil of social rights and the hammer of taxes and budgets trying to find compromises in light of long-lived crises.
 
In parallel, the political files and international pressure are still knocking the ministerial window from different gates but the two urgent ones are resembled by financing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and relations with neighboring Syria.
 
Gov't to Face Social Demands

Lebanese eyes are focused on the outcomes of the meeting to be held between Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the General Labor Union in an attempt to develop exits and to re-put demands on the road of dialogue so as to prevent suffering the choice of strike.

Mikati circles confirmed to "as-Safir" Lebanese daily that the PM is open to solutions as he is well aware of the difficult circumstances experienced by most of the Lebanese families, but there is a parallel priority reflected by facing inflation.

In this context, Labour Minister Nicolas Nahas informed "as-Safir" that "things have not reached a closed point and that the index committee is continuing in its work."

The GLU had announced Thursday that it was to boycott the meetings of this
committee to protest against the 2012 draft budget, which was prepared by Finance
Minister Mohammad Safadi.

"We have a key meeting Friday (today), and the issue is not to reach a specific number of wages, but to get to modify the economic style present in Lebanon for the coming twenty years," Nahas stressed.

For his part, Safadi expressed to the same daily his astonishment concerning the negative convulsive attitude declared by the General Labor Union as the latter withdrew from the Committee of index.

"The move does not help to find solutions, all things mentioned in the budget are to be discussed at the governmental table," Safadi stressed.

"As-Safir" quoted Safadi as saying "the ministerial committee headed by the PM will meet Monday to take out specific proposals and studies concerning the correction of wages, in such a way not to be eaten by inflation, and then the GLU and the employers are to announce their attitude of the committee's results."

In parallel, the president of the League of Lebanese University Professors Charbel Kfoury announced Thursday an open-ended strike until the government meets all the demands of educators at the state-run institution.

The government approved a draft law Wednesday to raise the salaries of full-time and part-time professors at the LU and formed a ministerial committee to propose the extent of the pay raise.

"We will continue the strike until the government refers the draft law to Parliament," Kfoury told The Daily Star.

Williams: ESCWA Threatened

At another level, "an-Nahar" reported Friday that the "outgoing UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams announced that ESCWA has decided to close its offices in downtown Beirut definitively due to trustworthy reports regarding security threats against the organization."
 
Williams said the agency would be leaving the building because of its glass facade and added the UN had carried out a global review of security since a bomb attack on its Nigeria headquarters.

STL Funding to the Top

Regarding the STL, while reports surfaced that the Lebanese Foreign Ministry received a letter from the STL demanding Lebanon to pay its share of the fund, sources at the Foreign Ministry denied to "al-Joumhouria" that the ministry has obtained such a request.

Meanwhile, political officials were busy studying the dimensions of the new equation drawn up by the Secretary General of Hizbullah His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who was quoted as rejecting STL funding while at the same time maintaining government unity.

"Hizbullah is used to play with the international resolutions. The party waited for neither the international legitimacy nor the UN and Lebanon's officials to implement UN resolution number 425, but went simply and wrested by force from the enemy," "al-Akhbar" Lebanese daily viewed.

"Similarly, Hizbullah succeeded in getting rid of resolution 1559 through two lines, the first is the table of dialogue, which was invented by House Speaker Nabih Berri, and the second through the adoption of resolution 1701, which wiped out the effects of resolution 1559," the daly clarified.

"Hizbullah, which, is today training al-Mahdi Scouts' Band on the anthem for the funeral of resolution 1757 (STL resolution) in March, is at the same time preparing to face future decisions, that would lay the curtain on the burial of the International Tribunal," "al-Akhbar" commented.

In parallel, "al-Akhbar" reported Friday that former PM Saad Hariri has reached the final stage of negotiations with Saudi Telecom Communication, which is seeking to buy an additional share of the Hariri-owned Oger Telecom.
 
The paper also revealed that Beirut's Municipality forms an essential element of the Future Movement's influence in the capital. "This is due to the jobs earmarked by the municipality exclusively to Future Movement supporters and to the various services that draw in businessmen and the city' inhabitants," the paper explains.

Source: Lebanese newspapers, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org