Outgoing Defense Minister Maurice Slim (third from left) and Army Chief Joseph Aoun at the funeral of Aoun's mother on Jan. 6, 2024. (Credit: The army's website)
L’Orient-Le Jour learned that caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim has still not agreed to meet with Army Chief Joseph Aoun. He has so far refrained from setting a date for the formal visit by General Aoun, who wants to thank him for offering his condolences for his mother’s passing in early January.
Slim’s decision is clearly political. It reflects one more time the deep crisis pitting the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) — to which Slim is close — against the army chief, the serious undeclared presidential candidate, whose term of office was renewed on Dec. 15 against the wishes of the FPM that despises him.
This tug-of-war is hampering the appointments to the military council — the army’s decision-making body — and those to the military court of cassation.
Maurice Slim refuses to endorse some appointments to this body on the grounds that “the candidates put forward [by the army chief] do not hold a law degree, as stipulated by the laws in force,” said the minister’s press office on Wednesday.
The statement refers to Article 7 of the law governing military justice. This article stipulates that “officers with a law degree shall be in charge of military justice.” However, it notes that in case this proves impossible, those who do not hold a degree may be appointed to the court.
It is based on this last point that circles close to the army command justify Aoun’s approach. They said that it is sufficient for candidates to the court to have attended training courses for the post of judicial investigator to have access to military justice.
In these circles, it is also said that the defense minister does not have the right to oppose a decision taken by the Military Council which, although reduced (three posts have been vacant for more than a year), exercises exceptional prerogatives by virtue of a cabinet resolution.
A source close to the case said that Slim trespassed the law by endorsing only the appointments relating to the permanent military court, whereas he had no choice but to endorse the military council’s entire decision. He therefore also had to approve the appointments to the Military Court of Cassation.
In a press release, Slim’s press office stated that the minister had given the green light for the move, but “the officers concerned have been prevented from carrying out their judicial duties .” This was an indirect dig at Aoun. But Aoun’s own circles believe that Slim’s position is hampering the proper functioning of the Military Court of Cassation.
The chief of staff
On another front, efforts to clear the way for the appointment of a new chief of staff, a position reserved for the Druze, appear to be bearing fruit. This is what prompted Walid Joumblatt to report, in his interview with the Hezbollah-aligned daily al-Akhbar on Wednesday, that there was a “positive atmosphere” around this file. But why is the Druze leader so optimistic?
“No comment,” said Druze MP Wael Bou Faour, who is in charge of this dossier. However, an informed source told L’Orient-Le Jour that Joumblatt received recently “positive echoes” about a possible appointment of the army’s second in command.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati gave this impression in an interview earlier this week with the Nida al-Watan daily. At the time, Mikati suggested that the issue could be discussed at the next cabinet meeting.
Does this mean that the Marada movement’s veto on such a move in the midst of a presidential vacancy has been lifted? The question arises 10 days after the dinner at Clemenceau between Joumblatt and Sleiman Frangieh, the Hezbollah-Amal presidential candidate.
But circles close to Frangieh and Joumblatt claim that the subject was not discussed at length during the meeting. “The Marada movement is sticking to its principled position, but could make exceptions to preserve the military institution’s interest,” said a source close to the movement, who declined to be named.
‘If Zeaiter was a defense minister’
But that is not enough. Slim is adamant that he will not accept any appointment by a caretaker cabinet amid a presidential vacuum. In fact, contrary to expectations, Slim has not put forward any names for the vacant positions in the army, exceeding the Jan. 15 deadline by which he had agreed with Mikati to carry out this task.
“Nothing has changed, no appointments in the absence of a president,” said a source close to the minister.
The problem between Mikati and FOM (whose ministers have shunned cabinet meetings since December 2022) therefore remains unresolved. This was evidenced in the speech of FPM leader Gebran Bassil in Parliament on Wednesday during the debate on the 2024 budget.
“The caretaker cabinet is committing a series of violations, including the appointments to senior positions without the countersignature of the minister concerned,” he said.
A few minutes earlier, Mikati was criticized by Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab, a former defense minister. “If [Amal MP] Ghazi Zeaiter were defense minister, would you have treated him the same way?”
This was an obvious criticism of Mikati’s desire to overstep Slim’s authority on this issue. Would Mikati, who raised the ire of Christians who accuse him of running the country as if there is nothing wrong, risk rubbing salt in the wound of Christians?
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.