Cabinet resumes its agenda in Baabda

The cabinet held an ordinary session on Wednesday at Baabda Palace to resume discussions on the agenda items that were not passed during Tuesday’s session. The session was led by President Michel Sleiman and held in the presence of PM Najib Mikati and the ministers.    

Prior to the session, President Sleiman and PM Mikati held a closed meeting to discuss the general situation in Lebanon and the latest updates.    

Prior to the session, Agriculture Minister Hussein El Hajj Hassan said that the discussions on wages and economic and social issues will continue between the economic bodies, the General Labor Confederation and the cabinet to reach a final outcome.    

Information Minister Walid Daouk said that the discussion over wages inside the cabinet is over, while the wider economic and social issues are still on the table to be discussed later on.    

Health Minister Ali Hussein Khalil said that the Labor Minister is dealing with the loophole in the 300 LBP increase on salaries ranging between 1,000,000 LBP and 1,800,000 LBP.    

Labor Minister Charbel Nahas said that the cabinet has not reached a final decision on wages, adding that it will follow up on this issue, should it be tabled.     Administrative Development Minister Mohammad Fneish stressed that nothing more could have been done as for the issue of wages.    

As for Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, he submitted a full file on oil and gas exploration to the cabinet. This issue is included in the session’s agenda, and was discussed in a previous session. “The mobile phone issue is the most important because they want to burden the state with a $48 million loss”.