I’tikaaf in the registry of government heads: a cry of protest more than a real change tool

“The Middle East” wrote: Prime Minister Nawaf Salam re -reclaimed its scheduled appointments on Friday, the reminder of a familiar political practice in Lebanon among the heads of government, and its vocabulary varied between “protest” and “i’tikaaf” and “suspending the work” and others .. The Salam step came immediately after “Hizbulb” raised its flags and pictures of its former leaders on the rock of the Raouche in Beirut, in a clear challenge to a clear circular issued by a clear circular. The use of public property for partisan or political purposes. His decision appeared to be a dual political message, which is to refuse to remain ink on paper, and to insist on holding the government combined, and with it the President of the Republic, the responsibility of protecting the prestige of the state.

Constitutional expert Saeed Malik explained to Asharq Al -Awsat that i’tikaaf “is not a term present in the Lebanese constitution, but it is a way of performance and an expression of a situation.” As for the legal consequences, this is considered a political position, nothing more, nothing less, does not arrange any legal results … the period of i’tikaaf is not specified in time, as it can be short or extend to months as it happened in previous precedents.
He believed that “through i’tikaaf, the prime minister does not have any authority to find the work of institutions, but rather is limited to refraining from the cabinet inviting the convening, while the ministers continue to exercise their duties within their ministries.”
History reveals that the protest by suspending the work or changing its agenda, despite its absence from the constitutional texts, turned into a Lebanese political custom that the heads of government resort to when the confrontation options are narrowed. But in essence, he remained a cry of protest more than a real change tool, and it often ends with settlements that reproduce the crisis instead of its solution. In 1969, former Prime Minister Rashid Karami resorted to i’tikaaf for months in protest against the clashes between the army and the Palestinian factions, and it was not ended until after the signing of the “Cairo Agreement” by the then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Four years later, and in April 1973, Prime Minister Saeb Salam, after an Israeli assassination of Palestinian leaders on Verdin Street, i’tikaaf, at the time of the then army commander, Iskandar Ghanem. When the President of the Republic, Suleiman Franjieh, refused to respond, Salam submitted his resignation on April 15 of the same year, ending a short but noisy i’tikaaf. With the outbreak of the civil war, Rashid Karami returned to the option of i’tikaaf in late 1975, struggling with the governmental companies and obstructing the sessions of the ministers in an attempt to stop the fighting, before his mission ended with the election of President Elias Sarkis in 1976. In the post -Taif stage, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri used a pressure card in the face of his political opponents, most notably in 1994 when he stopped practicing his tasks for days. Later, in the month of August 2015, President Tammam Salam resorted to something similar to a “open leave” after he abstained two weeks from the cabinet invitation to convene in the midst of the waste crisis, before his work resumed. Even after the Beirut port explosion, the protest emerged again when President Hassan Diab waved in March 2021 to completely stop the drainage of business, in a precedent of a client prime minister, which practically led to the paralysis of government meetings until the formation of the Naguib Mikati government in September of the same year.