Introduction to the evening news 23-02-2012

It looks like General Aoun implemented his part of the general agreement concluded since his meeting with Speaker Berri as Minister Nahas officially resigned and Minister Fattoush signed the transportation allowance decree. However, yesterday and today’s Parliament sessions did not result in the payment of the political dues or in the ratification of the draft laws presented by the Change and Reform bloc.        

But if we look at the situation deeply, the governmental majority floated and resorted to the consensus of the quintet: Mikati, Aoun, Hezbollah and Jumblatt who was adamant on personally attending the session to reaffirm his commitment to the agreement concluded under the auspices of Berri, despite his differentiated position from the Syrian issue.       

It also looks like the opposition managed to impose its equation of either passing the coverage and legalization of the 11 billion dollars spent between 2006 and 2010, or refraining from covering or passing the draft law to legalize the 8900 billion dollars spent by Mikati’s government in 2011.        

As for the governmental majority’s failure to reach quorum, it can be attributed to a technical, non-political disruption, according to an MP from the Change and Reform bloc.      

Awaiting the next session on March 5th, many questions are raised over the rest of the complexes that suspended the works of the cabinet: When will the cabinet convene again, and according to which agenda? What will happen to the disputed appointments?  What about the order of the positions on the Syrian crisis inside the cabinet, and their humanitarian, security and diplomatic repercussions?         

In Syria, on the eve of the Friends of Syria conference to be held in Tunisia tomorrow, and despite the fact that no crucial and immediate results are expected, an ambiguous declaration was made by U.S. officials who revealed that the conference will challenge Syrian President Bashar Assad to provide civilians with humanitarian assistance within days. These officials did not mention to journalists what could happen if Syrian authorities do not allow the delivery of these aids.           

Herein lies the question: How will these aids be delivered, especially that the idea of establishing humanitarian corridors will be hard to implement? How will the Syrian government be forced to do so?