Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — After meeting with Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that the meeting was positive, stressing that “the government is committed to what is stated in the ministerial statement and has not taken any step outside of it.”
Less than a week after its formation, the government finalized its ministerial statement — notably omitting the term "resistance" for the first time in more than two decades. The phrase, widely understood as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, was included in previous statements under pressure from the party and its allies. In March, Salam said the ministerial declaration signaled a turning of the page on the issue of Hezbollah's arms.
Asked about his relation with Salam against the backdrop of recent tensions between Hezbollah and the Prime Minister, Berri told al-Joumhouria recently that “when he turns up the heat, we turn up the heat; when he cools things down, we cool things down," suggesting that if Salam lowers his tone against Hezbollah, he will also be ready to do so, and vice versa.
In reaction to this, Salam quipped on Monday, “We are not a weather station, we neither cool things down nor heat them up. The speaker is very understanding.”
On the relationship with Hezbollah, he said, “I leave plenty of room for cordiality with [head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc] Mohammed Raad, and I welcome him and Hezbollah, and my doors are always open.”
Asked by journalists last Tuesday about Salam's statements, Raad preferred "not to comment out of concern to preserve what remains of our affection" towards the head of government.
In an interview on al-Jadeed on Sunday evening, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber stated that tensions between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and the Hezbollah-Amal alliance must "calm down," and that this issue had to be resolved because the government faces "crucial challenges."
Regarding the arms file, Salam stressed on Monday that it was "clearly mentioned in the ministerial statement, and everyone is committed to it, just as they are to the Taif Agreement and the extension of the state's authority over all its territory.”
Asked about his recent comment that "the era of exporting the Iranian revolution is over," he said that he does not know whether the Iranians themselves were still talking about exporting the revolution, and that's why he said that "this language is in the past.”
Regarding the reconstruction file, which became a key file after the recent war between Hezbollah and Israel caused massive destruction, Salam said that “the government needs more than $7 billion,” noting that “the World Bank estimates approach $14 billion.”
“Our ambition at the Washington meeting was to get $250 million from the World Bank and this is what we got, along with $75 million from the French," he added. Salam lastly emphasized “the government's commitment to rebuilding what was destroyed by the aggression.”
