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.

On Wednesday, the two ministers met with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh.

“Minister Abou Faour and I will conduct some contacts today so that we can reach the shore of safety tomorrow in the deadlocked garbage crisis,” Shehayyeb said after the talks.

For his part, Berri’s political aide Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who attended the talks, said the speaker “proposed new ideas that require convening the cabinet within 24 hours.”

“The ideas are compatible with the plan” proposed by Shehayyeb and a team of experts, Khalil said.

Berri meanwhile told lawmakers during the weekly Wednesday meeting that “finding a decisive solution to the garbage crisis has become a national necessity that cannot withstand any delay.”

In the evening, another meeting was held at the Grand Serail between Salam, Shehayyeb, Abou Faour, Mashnouq and Khalil.

“Another meeting will be held tomorrow and eleventh-hour contacts are underway in a bid to finalize the elements of the garbage crisis’ solution,” said Shehayyeb after the meeting.

Following talks with Salam earlier on Wednesday, Defense Minister Samir Moqbel said the premier was awaiting an answer from Hizbullah and the AMAL Movement regarding a possible location for a garbage landfill in the Bekaa region, revealing that some parties in the government “are seriously contemplating the possibility of sending the trash abroad.”

Abou Faour, meanwhile, said he formed an emergency panel to evaluate the health risks posed by the crisis and devise “short- and long-term solutions.”

“It is expected to finalize its report within two days,” he said.

Ministerial sources monitoring the trash file revealed to al-Joumhouria newspaper 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.

M.T./Y.R.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/193025-reports-say-salam-won-t-resign-as-berri-proposes-new-ideas-to-resolve-trash-crisis