Introduction to the evening news 04-01-2012

Around 252 billion LBP is the total sum loaned out from the treasury for the cabinet’s use tomorrow. This can only mean that the 7-year-long pattern of no state budget in Lebanon will persist. 2012 kicks off with no comparative change from the year before.             

Appointments are prevented by erupting disputes despite attempts to isolate them during the meeting between the prime minister and the civil service council. Meanwhile, the wage adjustment issue has been pushed back to square one after the Shura Council turned down the labor minister’s decree because the transportation allowance is illegally considered part of the wage, instead of an additional subsidy, and because it is not within the cabinet’s jurisdiction to regularly amend the cost of living.            

This is how PM Najib Mikati, through the administrative judiciary, may have accidentally recovered the political initiative that he lost after a cabinet majority voted for the Nahhas-backed draft, breaking the GLC-economic bodies deal that was signed under the premiere’s sponsorship.              

The labor minister who met with the Shura Council this morning refused to comment on the decision. He is expected to present his position before the cabinet tomorrow, knowing that the Change and Reform bloc that convened today has taken the brunt of the hit, noting that General Aoun did not give his customary post-meeting speech.             

In Syria’s unfolding developments, opposition members tried to build their own Tahrir Square in Homs. This endeavor coincided with the announcement of an Arab Foreign Ministers meeting on Saturday in Cairo for the hearing of the Arab League monitors’ first report after heavy Syrian, Arab and international debate.         

In parallel, the ruling Syrian Baath party announced that it would hold a nation-wide conference in February. The remarkable news today was the surprise escalation of Walid Jumblatt’s rhetoric on Syria when he called on Russia and Iran to change their approach on the Syrian crisis. He also called on Syrian Druze to refrain from participating in the repression carried out by the military.