Prime Minister Najib Mikati's cabinet is photographed with President Michel Aoun. (Credit: Dalati & Nohri)
BEIRUT — Cabinet will meet next Monday morning at 9 a.m. for the first time since Oct. 12, the state-run National News Agency reported Thursday. Najib Mikati’s government is due to discuss the 2022 draft budget along with 55 other agenda items.
Here’s what we know:
• Earlier this week, Mikati said that he had been working with his finance minister to ensure that the draft budget is ready by the end of the week so that the cabinet can meet early next week.
• “President Aoun and I have agreed on several topics," Mikati announced Monday from the Presidential Palace in Baabda. “We will meet again next week in the framework of the cabinet meeting, during which we will discuss the draft budget and other urgent and important matters.”
• The last meeting of Mikati’s cabinet was adjourned over a disagreement among its members on taking a stance on Judge Tarek Bitar’s leadership of the probe into the 2020 Beirut port explosion. Amal and Hezbollah affiliated ministers contest Bitar’s leadership, saying he has “politicized” the investigation. While this issue remains unresolved, Amal and Hezbollah have consented to convening cabinet to discuss the budget.