Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office announced on Wednesday the approval of a provision to promote all military and security forces officers, who had attained the rank of colonel between January 2020 and July 2022, to the rank of brigadier general.
The announcement came during a cabinet session held at the Grand Serail in Beirut.
The session was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Al Shami, and several Ministers of the caretaker government, including Minister of Education and Higher Education, Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister for the Displaced, Minister of Finance, Minister of State for Administrative Reform, Minister of Industry, Minister of Information, Minister of Telecommunication, Minister of Tourism, Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Minister of Justice, Minister of Culture, Minister of Environment, Minister of Labor, Minister of Agriculture, and Minister of Public Works and Transport.
The cabinet focused on 35 provisions, including Lebanon’s participation in Expo Doha 2023, treasury advances to the country’s internet provider, Ogero, the purchase of wheat and barley, the renewal of UNIFIL’s mandate, the promotion of security officers, and tenure of Civil Defense volunteers, in addition to the brevet official exams.
During the session, Mikati announced that brevet exams will be cancelled for this year. This comes in response to earlier calls for suspending official exams for nine graders amid the country’s ongoing crisis.
“Cabinet demanded the cancellation of the middle school (Grade 9) exams for this year, and it seems like there are logistics difficulties by security forces. For this reason, we took this decision, but the funding for the [grade 12] high school exams are secured,” Education Minister Abbas Halabi said following the session.
Halabi stated that the government approved all the provisions on its agenda, excluding a proposal to raise the tariffs of the state-owned telecommunications company, Ogero.
Among the approved decisions was the extension of UNIFIL’s mandate for an additional year.
Amid the ongoing political deadlock in Lebanon, the government expressed hope that the arrival of French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beirut on Wednesday would help accelerate the long-deadlocked presidential elections.
