Khalil Declines to Sign Officer Promotion Decrees amid Aoun-Berri Row
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil refused Wednesday to sign decrees for the promotion of some army officers, following a war of words between President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri over a previous decree that granted one-year seniority to some officers.
The new decrees involve the promotion of a number of officers from the rank of colonel to the rank of brigadier general and others from lieutenant colonel to colonel.
Khalil declined to sign the decrees after he found out that they included officers whose names were listed in the controversial seniority decree, media reports said.
The minister has asked for clarifications from the Defense Ministry, according to the reports.
The Aoun-Berri spat broke out after the president and Premier Saad Hariri signed a decree granting one-year seniority to a number of officers. Berri and Khalil have insisted that the decree should have also carried the finance minister's signature.
Aoun and his aides have argued that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not contain any “financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued against.
Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons.
The officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun’s military government from Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993 before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.
Source: Naharnet
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