Prime Minister Tammam Salam will not step down from his post on Thursday, as media reports have been claiming in recent weeks, reported An Nahar daily on Wednesday.
It said that the premier “will not give up his political mission even if his personal interests lie in resigning.”
“Resignation however will not serve the country's interests, especially since the current government is not one of approving decrees, but one of managing the republic in the absence of a president,” his visitors told An Nahar.
Media reports had been linking the premier's resignation to the ongoing deadlock over resolving the garbage disposal crisis and over the government paralysis due to some forces' boycott of its meetings.
They had said that he would step down from his post should a solution fail to be reached by Thursday.
Salam had held talks on the crisis on Tuesday with Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb and Health Minister Wael Abou Faour.
Shehayyeb had proposed a plan to tackle the crisis, “but the premier has not yet received any positive replies to it,” reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday.
Ministerial sources monitoring the trash file revealed that the latest efforts to end the case have persuaded Salam to postpone taking “any final stance on the ongoing government paralysis.”
Shehayyeb is meanwhile expected to announce on Thursday that he will no longer continue his efforts to resolve the garbage crisis.
Such a measure will grant the premier more time to exert political pressure on those hindering an agreement on the minister's proposal, said the sources.
Lebanon has been suffering from a trash disposal crisis since July with the closure of the Naameh landfill.
Politicians have failed to find an alternative to the landfill, resulting in the pile up of garbage on the streets of the country.
Heavy rain on Sunday brought with it flooded streets coupled with waste, as experts warned of the health and environmental impact of the crisis.
Fuente: http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/193025-report-salam-won-t-resign-and-...
