Mikati calls on Mansour to follow up Syrian violations during cabinet session

The cabinet held a session on Wednesday at the Grand Serail under the chairmanship of Premier Najib Mikati and discussed 59 articles on its agenda.
                      
Most of the Ministers were present in the session except Deputy Prime Minister Samir Mokbel, Ministers Hussein Hajj Hassan, Fadi Abboud, Adnan Mansour, Freij Sabounjian, Faisal Karami and Salim Karam.                       

During the session, PM Mikati called on Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour to follow up on the issue of the increasing violations of the Lebanese borders both by Syria and Israel.                        

For his part, Minister of State and Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish noted that Syria’s violations are being addressed in a diplomatic manner between the two “brotherly nations”, noting that Israel’s increasing abuses are receiving little to no condemnation on the part of Lebanese officials.                            

Prime Minister Mikati also discussed the attacks against 4 Sheikhs in Lebanon’s Shiyah and al-Khandak al-Ghameek areas and considered that the incident was a clear attempt to incite strife.              

As for the electoral law, Minister of State Marwan Kheireddine said that a new electoral law should be agreed upon since the Supreme Council for Legislation chaired by Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi noted that forming the electoral supervisory committee tasked to oversee electoral campaigns on the basis of the 1960’s law "can happen only once".                                  

Separately, the Cabinet agreed on a draft law that calls for additional appropriations in the general budget and annexed budgets for 2005 in order to cover deficiency allocations pertaining to the series of ranks and salaries.              

The cabinet also tasked the Higher Relief Commission with buying off the apple harvest and supporting sugar beets’ harvest.


For the full report, please click on the VIDEO above.