State Budget Battle Heats Up Raising Specter of Crisis
The usually routine budget process in Lebanon could be headed for trouble on Friday as Speaker Nabih Berri and Premier Fouad Saniora disagreed over funding for the Council of the South.
The state budget for fiscal 2009 could be stalled by LL 60 billion Berri wants earmarked for the Council of the South.
State Minister Khaled Qabbani, however, sounded optimistic about a solution.
"I believe state budget will be approved. A solution to the crisis seems to be in the offing; and we will reach a solution at Cabinet meeting tonight," Qabbani told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
Meanwhile, member of Berri”s Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc MP Ali Hassan Khalil suggested setting up a Ministry of Planning that would carry out the paperwork on credits and grants.
The Ministry of Planning, according to Khalil, could also be "responsible for running balanced development projects across Lebanon."
Cabinet Minister Ibrahim Najjar hit back at Khalil, saying: "We would discuss the creation of a Ministry of Planning when a new Cabinet is formed."
President Michel Suleiman was said to be playing a role in calming the situation between Berri and Saniora in an effort to reach a compromise.
News reports said Suleiman and Berri agreed that Khalil be dispatched to the Presidential Palace on Friday carrying with him a "comprehensive compromise" based on immediate elimination of the Council of the South in addition to the Council regarding internally displaced citizens and the Higher Relief Council and set up a Ministry of Planning instead.