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GOVERNMENT FORMATION

Finance Ministry: What Taif and the Constitution say

Nabih Berri's insistence on obtaining the ministry is not based on the provisions of the two texts. It is eminently political.

Finance Ministry: What Taif and the Constitution say

President Joseph Aoun, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, in Baabda on Jan. 14, 2024. (Photo taken from the Flickr account of Parliament)

"I commit to forming the government in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Taif Agreement," Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam said in Baabda following his appointment, summing up his approach to accomplishing his task at a time when the international community is pushing for the rapid formation of the future team.

However, despite the publicly expressed willingness of all parties to facilitate the task of the designated prime minister, he faces the insistence of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah to retain the Ministry of Finance, which has been in the hands of the Amal Movement for more than a decade.

Conversely, the former head of the International Court of Justice was uncompromising on the principle.

"Finance is not reserved for a specific community. But at the same time, no community should be deprived of occupying it," he said Tuesday from Baabda.

The response by the two parties did not take long. It was the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, who took it upon himself, in an interview with the Assas website, to state bluntly that the Taif Agreement (1989) allocated this ministry to the Shiite community. Berri chose to confront Salam with the same weapon the latter employed in the political confrontation around the composition of the cabinet. But fundamentally, this tug-of-war primarily revolves around the provisions of Taif and their interpretation. What do Taif and the Constitution say about the Ministry of Finance?

The question arose first because the minutes of the negotiations preceding the establishment of the agreement in the Saudi city of Taif in 1989 to end the civil war have never been disclosed. There is also the fact that several political figures of the time claimed that this issue was discussed without being included in the texts.

Boutros Harb, a former MP who was part of the Lebanese delegation in Taif, settled the debate.

"The national accord document (the Taif Agreement) encompasses all the issues that were unanimously agreed upon. And it is incorrect to say that some issues were resolved without being included. If they were not, it's because they were not subject to general consensus," Harb explained in a statement released on Friday.

He acknowledged, however, that the issue of allocating the Finance Ministry to the Shiite community was discussed during the debates.

"But it was not adopted due to lack of consensus," he clarified, noting that no ministry was exclusively attributed to a specific community, "to promote rotation and prevent monopolies."

These remarks deconstruct Berri's arguments and consolidate Salam's position, who claimed to be attached to Taif. Moreover, the Constitution amended in 1990 in the light of the 1989 agreement does not allocate any ministry to a community.

"Paragraph J of the Constitution's preamble coupled with Article 95 stipulates, essentially, that religious communities should be represented fairly and equitably within institutions," Paul Morcos, a constitutional expert, explained to L’Orient-Le Jour. He refered to the last paragraph of the Constitution's preamble, which states that "no legitimacy is recognized for a power that contradicts coexistence."

Article 95 provides that "the Parliament elected on an equal basis between Muslims and Christians must take appropriate measures to ensure the abolition of political sectarianism ... During the interim period, communities will be equitably represented in the formation of the government."

"This means that the distribution of ministries should be equal between Christians and Muslims, no more, no less," Morcos explained, estimating that anything beyond this interpretation pertains solely to political practices, not even customs. Not every repetitive practice is a custom in the constitutional sense.

"A custom is characterized by stability and recurrence," the expert noted. He highlighted that several ministries have been occupied by various communities.

Sunnis and Christians

The Ministry of Finance is no exception to this rule. In the post-Taif period, this ministry was initially entrusted to Shiites. Ali al-Khalil – not to be confused with his distant successor Ali Hassan Khalil – was in charge of the cabinets of Salim Hoss (1989-1990) and Omar Karameh (1990-1992). Assaad Diab later took over during the Rashid Solh cabinet (May to October 1992).

It is likely this repetition that pushed Berri to request that the Finance Ministry remain in Shiite hands within the first Rafic Hariri cabinet in 1992. As part of a deal, the government was to be authorized to govern by decree, as the head of the legislature said in his interview.

But this agreement fell through. According to Berri, Hariri did not keep his part of the bargain because he refused to endorse the appointment of Rida Wahid, a Shiite, to finance, as Berri wanted. Furthermore, as noted by the speaker, the Syrian president at the time, Hafez al-Assad, was far from enthusiastic about giving Hariri full powers.

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Whatever the case, it was Hariri himself who took charge of the Ministry of Finance within his own ministerial teams between 1992 and 1998. He was therefore the first Sunni to occupy this post after Taif, assisted by his right-hand man Fouad Siniora, appointed minister of state for financial affairs. This approach was then deemed "natural" as the country's economic and financial recovery, just emerging from a long civil war, was at the center of Hariri's ambitions.

It was only in 2000 that Siniora officially became Minister of Finance, with Maronite Georges Corm heading this ministry first (1998-2000). After Siniora, the post was successively held by Greek Orthodox Elias Saba (2004-2005), Maronites Damien Kattar (2005) and Jihad Azour (2005-2008), as well as Sunnis Mohammad Chatah (2008-2009), Raya al-Hassan (2009-2011), and Mohammad Safadi (2011-2013). Saad Hariri and Najib Mikati then followed Rafic Hariri's example, without anyone being offended or invoking the national pact, even after the Doha Agreement came into force (May 2008). It was with the formation of Tammam Salam's cabinet (2014) that the Shiites, particularly the Amal-Hezbollah duo, returned to the Ministry of Finance. Ali Hassan Khalil was appointed in 2014 and remained until 2020 before being succeeded by Ghazi Wazni, followed by Youssef Khalil.

Changing the system?

Berri's insistence on obtaining this ministry is therefore eminently political. It finds its reasons in the Shiites' desire to add their "fourth signature" alongside those of the Maronite president, the Sunni Prime Minister – and the concerned minister – to decrees issued by the government, which overwhelmingly have a financial aspect. It is a way for the community to ensure a predominant place within the current system. A strong-arming arises as some fear that the duo's advocacy for the Finance ministry and the pressure it exerts on Nawaf Salam may lead to a fundamental change in the system, replacing the Christian-Muslim parity with a tripartite sharing system. However, Berri dismissed this in his interview.

"No one is interested in embarking on such a project at present," Morcos said, as it would be a leap into the unknown. "They would be better off starting to apply the Constitution before thinking about changing it."

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.

"I commit to forming the government in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Taif Agreement," Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam said in Baabda following his appointment, summing up his approach to accomplishing his task at a time when the international community is pushing for the rapid formation of the future team.However, despite the publicly expressed...