Key Lebanon Official Persuaded to Stay On
Lebanon’s leaders Sunday defused a Cabinet crisis that threatened to topple the 8-month-old coalition government by blocking the resignation of a key Sunni Muslim leader, the Voice of Lebanon radio said.
Efforts to persuade Education and Labor Minister Salim Hoss, the leading moderate in the nine-man Cabinet of national unity, to withdraw his resignation succeeded, apparently during a top-level meeting Sunday.
“When this government was formed, we felt that it should stay united and that it imposed on us the responsibility of governing together or leaving together,” Premier Rashid Karami said after meeting with Hoss.
Describing Hoss as “one of the pillars of our government,” Karami had earlier indefinitely postponed an emergency Cabinet session, and government sources said future sessions would be in doubt unless Hoss returned.
Hoss, a prominent member of the powerful Sunni community, became the first to attempt to leave the Cabinet of five Muslims and four Christians.
Political and religious leaders of Lebanon’s estimated 475,000 Sunnis visited Hoss on Sunday in an attempt to block his resignation.
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