Report: Bassil Insists on Holding Abidjan Conference, AMAL Wants it 'Canceled'

A dispute between AMAL Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement over a seniority decree enlarged and impacted the February Lebanese Diaspora Energy conference for Africa organized by FPM head, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.

The daily said the row between FPM founder, President Michel Aoun, and AMAL head Speaker Nabih Berri impacted Lebanon's community and expatriates mainly “southern expats,” (mostly Shiite) living in the African continent who are supposed to attend the meeting.

AMAL (a party associated with Lebanon's Shia community) has reportedly signaled to the community's officials in Ivory Coast to boycott the meeting that will be held in Abidjan on February the 2nd and 3rd under Bassil's sponsorship.

The bulk of the Lebanese community, the vast majority of whom descend from South Lebanon, have responded to the request. Meanwhile many businessmen and officials said they will attend, according to the daily.

The division has “hit the button of sectarian and regional divisions,” said al-Akhbar, "but that did not stop the two sides from nurturing it through mutual viciousness and mobilization of their tools for the upcoming parliamentary battle.”

On the other hand, the daily quoted official sources who said that Bassil “insists on holding the conference even if only one guest attends.”

The seniority decree broke out between Aoun and Berri after the president and premier Saad Hariri signed a decree granting one-year seniority to a number of officers. Berri and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil have insisted that the decree should have also carried the finance minister's signature.