Beirut: On Saturday, and as he promised after government ministers failed to agree on a successor during Thursday’s Cabinet session, Defence Minister Samir Moqbel extended the term of office for Major General Mohammad Kheir by a full year.
The tenure of the secretary-general of the Higher Defence Council will now expire on August 21, 2017.
Moqbel acted against strong objections raised by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), whose ministers called the move political “theatrics”, which offended the elder defence minister.
Though Moqbel tabled the names of three candidates to succeed Kheir, none received the required two-thirds majority vote within the Cabinet, leaving him with little choice but to extend Kheir’s term, or contribute to yet another vacancy at a top security post.
Speaking in public on Friday, Moqbel did not mince his words against FPM accusations that he was engaged in “theatrics” calling on his critics to cease and desist, since they were, he hammered, the ones obstructing the election of a president that stood as genuine theatre.
The latest reappointment implied that Moqbel would extend the term of Army commander General Jean Qahwaji next, as the latter’s term is set to expire on September 30, even if the FPM leader, Michel Aoun, was firmly opposed.
Vocal FPM ministers insisted they would not accept such an extension and may usher in a cabinet crisis though few expected the threats to be carried out because Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who stood peerless within, and spoke for, March 8, hinted that the time was not auspicious for vacancies at security posts.
In August 2015, the Defence Minister had already postponed the retirement of army commander Qahwaji, Chief of Staff Major General Walid Salman and Higher Defence Council chief Major General Mohammad Kheir, extending their terms by one year. Absent political agreements on security and military appointments, Lebanese elites once again confronted irreconcilable disputes with the only means left to them — postponements.