Ministers of Hezbollah, FPM Walk out Cabinet Session for ‘Lack of Partnership’

Ministers of Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement and the Tashnag party stormed out of the cabinet session on Tuesday over the lack of respect for the principle of partnership and because of making decisions and signing decrees without the approval of ministers from Hezbollah and the FPM, Al-Manar correspondent said.

The session, which was intended to discuss the issue of waste disposal, witnessed debates about approving a large number of decrees with the absence of political blocks.

The cabinet’s emergency session continued with the rest of ministers who discussed the issue of tenders which was not approved and therefore were canceled.

Information Minister Ramzi Joreige, who read out the Cabinet's official statement after the session, said the decision to reject the bids was based on the recommendation of Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk. The ministerial committee responsible for handling the crisis was tasked with restarting the process with a new bid document and call for tenders.

Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan said as he walked out of the meeting that the decision to leave was made because political rivals would not "listen to calls for true partnership," noting that the Cabinet recently passed 70 decrees without unanimous approval.