Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with the French ambassador responsible for coordinating international support to Lebanon, Pierre Duquesne, on Monday. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday that while contacts are continuing to remove obstacles hindering the resumption of government meetings, a cabinet meeting under the current circumstances could exacerbate political tensions, according to the state-run National News Agency. The premier’s remarks came as he met with the French ambassador responsible for coordinating international support to Lebanon, Pierre Duquesne.
Here’s what we know:
• The NNA reported that Mikati told Duquesne, “Contacts are continuing to find a solution to the government situation, especially since the coming period requires intensive government meetings to settle many issues and support the ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.” However, the premier is cited as estimating that “the convening of the cabinet without ensuring the favorable circumstances for this could cause an increase in political tensions and further complicate the solutions, which is why we are continuing contacts before taking a decision on this subject.”
• Mikati’s cabinet has not met in more than two months after its last session, on Oct. 12, was adjourned following disagreement between ministers over taking a stance on Judge Tarek Bitar’s leadership of the probe into the 2020 Beirut port explosion.
• The NNA also reports Mikati as assuring that “the negotiations with the IMF are going well, and the results should appear soon.” For his part, Duquesne, quoted in the press release from the prime minister’s office, said that negotiations with the IMF should be completed ahead of the legislative elections scheduled for next spring.
• The French envoy did not make a statement at the end of his meeting with Mikati.
• Duquesne began a three-day visit to Beirut on Monday, during which he will have a series of talks with Lebanese leaders, to take stock of the country’s many crises.
• Duquesne is the first French official to visit Lebanon since President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Saudi Arabia in early December, which resulted in a pledge of a joint Saudi-French humanitarian support mechanism, but no concrete details about the shape that might take
• Duquesne does not have a meeting scheduled with President Michel Aoun, according to local channel MTV
• Duquesne last visited Beirut in October, when he insisted on the need for Lebanon’s government to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund by “by the end of the year.” As 2021 comes to an end, an agreement with the IMF does not appear to be imminent.