"US Embassy behind Conflict over Council for South΄s Budget"

Source: Al-Manar TV, 24-02-2009
Forty-eight hours ahead of a "decisive" cabinet session concerning the national budget, no consensus seems to have been reached yet between the political "poles" and the "national unity" government seems tending to adopt the... "NO budget" principle!
So, Lebanon seems to be preparing for a fifth year without a general budget pending an "impossible" consensus to be reached by the political "poles," mainly between Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Fouad Saniora who's still refusing to give southerners their rights from the budget.
While President Michel Sleiman reportedly launched a behind-the-scenes initiative aiming to have Speaker Berri and PM Saniora meeting at the Baabda presidential palace within hours, the Council for the South seems once again to be the "victim" of the campaign launched by Saniora and his financial team against Berri who's expected to hold a meeting with Sleiman on Wednesday according to well-informed sources.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Manar, the council's chief decided to uncover the real background of the conflict, emphasizing the direct role played by the US embassy in an attempt to prevent the council of getting its right in order to continue its development projects in the South.
According to Qabalan, the US embassy is seeking to interfere in every Lebanese detail with no hesitation, accusing the Americans of obstructing all political and diplomatic values and norms. However, the US campaign against the Council for the South has started a long time ago, the council's chief told Al-Manar. He explained that the campaign started with the Wazzani water project. "At the time, a US delegation came from Washington and sought to pressure me in order to halt work in the project," Qabalan said.
He noted that the American interference in the issue is not limited to the general headlines. "They are interested in knowing all details, they want to know even the salaries paid to the martyrs' families as well as to the former detainees and wounded people," he pointed out, adding that those amounts and numbers were submitted to the Finance Minister upon his request.