Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet failed to convene to extend Army chief’s term

Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet failed to convene on Tuesday, due to the lack of quorum

A ministerial meeting at the Grand Serail replaced the canceled session.

The cabinet session was postponed to Monday.

According to Lebanese media reports the session was supposed to discuss postponing the army chief retirement for a year, but according to the pro Hezbollah media reports the discussion of the army chief’s term extension was unlikely, due to the lack of political consensus.

Mikati reportedly said during the side meeting with some of the the ministers that the extension of the term of the Army chief needs consensus, and cannot happen through a confrontational approach.

Army chief General Joseph Aoun’s term ends in January and if his term is not extended this would add another gap to crisis-hit Lebanon.

Lebanon has been without a president and its government has been running in a limited caretaker capacity.

Lebanese Forces on Monday visited Speaker Nabih Berri to ask that he schedule a parliamentary session for extending Aoun’s term, but Berri reportedly wants to wait for the cabinet’s decision before scheduling a parliamentary session , according to media reports .

Hezbollah’s ally Gebran Bassil who heads up the FPM is reportedly against the extension of Aoun’s term and most of his minsiters skipped todays caretaker cabinet session