Najib Miqati’s Cabinet will convene next week following yesterday’s resignation of Information Minister George Kordahi.Unnamed sources told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper that the standoff over Judge Tarek Bitar’s probe into the Beirut port blast will be defused through partitioning the case and referring the accused ex-PM and former ministers to the Higher Council for Trial of Presidents and Ministers. The sources added that this would be the second part of a bargain that started with Kordahi’s resignation.
"The second phase begins with the convention of Cabinet in the presence of the ministers of Hizbullah
...
Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as
The Resistanceand purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
and the Amal Movement, which will likely happen on Friday," al-Anbaa quoted informed sources as saying.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper meanwhile reported that no "appropriate solution" has yet been reached despite the intensification of contacts.
It, however, added that "a new attempt is seeking to revive the first initiative of the Justice Minister, which had called for forming a judicial committee tasked with laying out the foundations on which the trial of presidents and ministers should be based."
Cabinet has not convened since October 14, when a political crisis erupted over Bitar’s investigations, with Hizbullah and Amal demanding that a decision be taken in Cabinet to remove him over alleged bias. President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...’s camp and other parties had meanwhile voiced their rejection of political interference in the judiciary.