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Yesterday’s cabinet meeting was not expected to turn into a voting session and division within the same house, according to the electricity plan submitted by Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar. The government, which is competing against time, in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund negotiations, to achieve the necessary and rapid reforms, were able to approve the electricity plan and vote. The affirmation is that what happened yesterday in the cabinet would not have happened if it had been held in the Baabda palace, nor the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, would have allowed the projection of the president of the “Free Patriotic Movement” Gibran Bassil, nor Prime Minister Hassan Diab would have dared to request a vote to leave him in Aoun’s presence. Regarding what happened and Diab’s “stranding” occurred with a session he chaired to impose the voting mechanism suddenly for the Aounist movement. What the Prime Minister endorsed and reinforced his support in this direction was that Hizballah joined a quadruple alliance that included him in the Amal Movement and an Al-Murda stream and the “Tashnaq” party left the priority of the Silata plant of the “Electricity” plan carried out by Minister Raymond Ghajar. The result was that the “Veto Quartet” besieged the “commodity trend” of the “National Movement” in favor of imposing the starting point on the construction of power plants from my Zahrani site. And Deir Ammar, who provoked the anger of the president of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gibran Bassil, as a result of the cabinet coup. According to the sources that accompany the atmosphere that followed the session of the Grand Serail of the “Nation of the Nation”, hoping that the head of the “National Movement” will not back down at his demand, he will reconnect the implementation of the plan to advance a Simultaneous context of works in the three sites, Silata, Zahrani and Deir Ammar. , Under “brake” the entire plan based on “Ali and my allies”.
In details of what happened in the cabinet, the Al-Nahar newspaper noted that when the cabinet discussed building the factories in three locations, Al Zahrani, Deir Ammar and Salata, which four companies are interested in building, which are Siemens , General Electric, Ansaldo and Mitsubishi, there was a dispute between the Minister of Energy Raymond Ghajar AND the ministers of “Amal” and “Hezbollah” about the priority of the sites to start the construction process.
In the details, the sources indicated through “Nation’s Call” that the “same scenario” that occurred when the problem of the need to establish a factory in Silata was raised or not at the table of the previous government, which was repeated yesterday in the cabinet table, explaining that “the object of the objection was and continues to be about the cost to build the Silata plant and the millions of dollars it imposes on the State Treasury.” This controversy captured most of the discussion it had place among the ministers, where the Minister of Energy indicated that four companies are interested in building electricity plants (Siemens, General Electric, Mitsubishi, Ansaldo), suggesting the inclusion of Salata site for the work of the first stage, Then, the ministers of the “Amal Movement”, “Hezbollah”, “Marada” and “Al-Tashnaq” were quick to reject because it is an expensive option, especially because the acquisitions to build a factory of produ Basic costs are expensive and can reach $ 500 million, while the Zahrani and Deir Ammar sites are ready and do not require construction. They worked in a long time and financing, and demanded that the work be started by Zahrani and Deir Ammar. However, at the insistence of the Minister of Energy and the ministers of the “Free Patriotic Movement” regarding the simultaneous construction of factories at the three sites, the Prime Minister put the issue to a vote and the proposal of the “National Movement”, who had only five votes (Gypsy, Raoul Neama, Nassif Hatti, Marie Claude Negm and Ghada Shreim), fell against the majority The ministerial opposition joined the Minister of Information, Manal Abdel Samad, so the decision was to start work from the Zahrani site in the first stage, provided that the Minister of Energy negotiates with the companies that wish to do so.
The file was presented in the Cabinet from three angles:
1 – Do not waste the achievements made in controlling the epidemic.
2 – After an evaluation session for the four-day exams, if the proliferation hot spots are found to be dangerous, an additional closure period will be extended.
3 – In the event that things are positive, the fourth stage will be applied, according to the current program, starting on Monday 18/5/2020.
According to the information, the Memorandum of Understanding to negotiate with the companies to build the factories stipulates a maximum period of 6 months, then offers are presented and a report is presented to the Council of Ministers with the result.
Rome: I have not made any priority
At the same time, the Minister of Rome denied “the brigade” that he had presented any priority and said: business companies and submit offers and decide from any plant that begins, and report the results of the negotiations to the cabinet and he decides to build any plant according with interest and importance, if he decides to start From Zahrani, we start, and if he says from Silatata, we start from Silatata. The important thing is that we start with the fastest offer offered by companies. Knowing that any plant does not give electricity only to the region in which it is located, the Zahrani plant not only gives the south but to Beirut and other regions, so I say that I do not have priority between one plant and another except as companies to decide.
In response to a question about the fate of the Zouk and Jiyyeh factories, he explained: I cannot stop a laboratory like the Zouk factory before securing a replacement, because that means losing around 400 megawatts, that is, almost four hours of current food, and that is the case of the Jiyyeh factory. He said: he now plans to build new factories in the three regions of Al-Zahrani, Deir Ammar and Salata, and we will start with the new factories, knowing that the previous decisions of the Council of Ministers stipulate this.
In response to a question on the subject of the quadrilateral or hexagonal link with the Arab countries or Turkey and Iran, Ghajar said: This is a thorny and complicated and costly material issue and needs study and time consuming despite the fact that it is a practical solution and It ensures electricity quickly, but it needs an in-depth and precise study with countries and many technical and technical measures.
Hezbollah resentful
Politically, sources familiar with Hezbollah’s atmosphere revealed that the clash between its two allies, Rep. Gibran Bassil and former MP Suleiman Farniyah, is resentful of what is happening between them. According to those close to him: “There is no need to interfere and there is no benefit from it.” The two men entered mazes that were not worthy of either us or us. The confidants noted that “what Franjieh and Basil do not know, apart from each other’s eligibility or lack of justifications and fair proposals, is that the two men left the presidential race early.”
And these people point out: “Someone can say that Franjieh conceded a lot in the past, and Hezbollah did not find him in many situations, but left Basil to earn political points against him and gain broad popular support at the expense of his political assets and popular, but that does not justify his fall in the protection of the director of the companies “. Oil “Sarkis Hillis”, which has been considered a big black point in their internal and external political history, as if Franjieh and Basil, according to those close to the party, “disputed those who made the most mistakes.” Knowing that the former minister, Muhammad Fneish, went to court.
