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“The Council of Ministers held a session chaired by His Excellency the President of the Republic and attended by the Prime Minister and ministers. At the beginning, His Excellency the President spoke, commemorating the memory of Lebanese martyrs, which falls on May 6, and said  “We always remember our martyrs for any party they belonged to, because they died for the sake of Lebanon. Remembering them is a duty in the hope that their testimony will have fulfilled the national, independence and sovereign demands they sought. We salute our fallen martyrs for the independence and freedom of the country, and we also remember all those who died for the sake of Lebanon and defending it, and we hope that future generations will not repeat the tragedy of internal wars and that politicians will always strive to defuse the differences between the Lebanese”.

His Excellency added: “In this delicate stage, which our country is passing through, we must join our efforts to overcome it and be one hand for that. We have several proposals before us regarding the issue of fighting corruption, and previously draft laws and proposals have been prepared, and it is necessary to unify the formulas to submit them to the Parliament according to the principles. As for the proposals that were put in place to help the Lebanese in the current difficult circumstances, they should be given every attention, especially those related to exemptions, social assistance and the demands of all kinds of institutions”.

President Aoun also considered that “The high prices of commodities of all kinds are unacceptable, and rapid measures are required to restore these prices and activate monitoring, especially for the institutions that raised their prices without commercial or legal justifications and increased their profits clearly”.

After that, Prime Minister Diab said: “Today we have repeatedly before us the decision to renew the public mobilization for two weeks, with the beginning of partially easing the procedures officially, while the people have bypassed these measures a lot as if the mobilization decision has ended. Of course, as is evident from the continued registration injuries, the Corona pandemic has not ended yet. On the contrary, we have a great fear that the pandemic will spread more quickly these days due to the state of complacency and lack of commitment to procedures. For this, security services must again strictly implement the decisions and measures, because the occurrence of a second wave of the spread of this epidemic, will be higher than the first. In politics, His Excellency took the initiative to invite the heads of parliamentary blocs to meet tomorrow with a view to discussing the government’s financial reform plan. The goal of this initiative is for the House of Representatives to be a partner in this plan, and for the political blocs to participate in the rescue workshop, because this workshop requires national solidarity. You know, we sent a letter to the IMF, and asked for help. In parallel, we started working on the Cedar Conference, with the support of France, and God willing, the atmosphere is encouraging in this regard.

The Government continues to be alert, but unfortunately, there are always those who try to block and put sticks in wheels, even though the stage requires everyone to reach out with the Government to accelerate the rescue. When a country is in danger, all people, all political forces, are supposed to partner with the Government to protect the country from risks. There is no room at this stage for any political heartburn, interest, partisan, factional, or sectarian calculations. Unfortunately, there are people who have a desire to continue the logic of quotas and dependencies with everything in the country, especially with administrative appointments, while they must be convinced that it is no longer possible but to adopt the logic of efficiency and cleanliness of the palm. People rose up against the quotas, and some raised the slogans of the October 17 revolution, and considered themselves partners in launching it, and today they speak in a language that contradicts the slogans of the Lebanese uprising. They talk about injustice. Where is the injustice ?! Will it be unjust if we stick to the standards of efficiency and cleanliness of the palm?! I am sure that the Lebanese reject sectarian immunities, reject the language they have heard and talk about sectarian protections. In any case, we work according to what our conscience dictates to us, with a national logic and a national spirituality, and we will not change these concepts and constants under any circumstances, whatever the challenges. We will continue our journey without being affected by the campaigns that target us because of our national identity, thinking and decisions”.

Then, the Cabinet studied the issues on its agenda and took appropriate decisions.

In terms of fighting the Corona epidemic:

• Re-extension of the public mobilization, which was announced by Decree No. 6296/2020, starting from 11/5/2020 until 24/5/2020 implicitly.

• Emphasizing the activation and implementation of the measures and procedures imposed by Decree No. 6198/2020 and Decree No. 6209/2020, and the relevant decrees and decisions issued by the Minister of Interior and Municipalities, during the period of extending the above-mentioned mobilization.

• Maintaining the economic activities that were allowed to gradually restore work within its scope and according to the time stages referred to in Article 2 of Decree No. 6251/2020 and within specific conditions based on the following criteria: intensity of communication, number of callers, possibility of modification, level of priority and potential risks. 

The Cabinet reviewed a proposal submitted by the Information Minister regarding the opening of the nomination for the appointment of the Chairman and members of the Board of Directors of Lebanon Television, based on general and specific criteria and required characteristics (the focus will be on the criteria of competence, integrity, merit, and the door is open to all). The nomination can be made electronically through the official Information Ministry website.

Concerning anti-corruption measures:

• The Council approved the presentation of the Minister of State for Administrative Development Affairs for the draft national strategy to combat corruption.

• The Council of Ministers decided to form a specialized committee that would conduct a comprehensive survey of the wealth of people who held constitutional, judicial, administrative or military positions with their spouses and minor children, according to a mechanism, criteria, and foundations determined by the committee, and to organize reports to be sent successively to the competent regulatory and /or judicial bodies to conduct legal requirements as necessary.

• Approving the fifth and sixth measures from the proposals submitted by the Justice Minister and postponing the discussion of the seventh measure to the next session. The fifth measure provides for the activation of Article 4 of the Unlawful Enrichment Law, verification of the presentation of permits for wealth in application of this Article No. 154/1999, and the arrangement of legal consequences for violations. As for the sixth measure, it provides for the collection of information in order to activate Article 12 of the illicit enrichment law (Article 4 requires that funds be declared before the start of work and after the completion of the position, and Article 12 relates to following up on the matter).

In parallel, the Government reminded banks of the necessity to abide by what they pledged to transfer the necessary funds to students residing abroad who are unable to return to Lebanon at the present time, especially since many families assert that it is not possible for them to date today to transfer any amount to their children, noting that next Thursday’s cabinet session is devoted exclusively to studying the delicate economic, living and social conditions”.