Zeina Abu Rizk
Daily Star staff

Some 48 hours prior to the holding of a decisive Cabinet meeting over the cellular question, mediations between Baabda and Koraytem were stuck Tuesday with senior leaders refusing to concede their positions on the future of the telecommunications sector.
Both sides have suggested that there has been little movement toward a compromise over the past 24 hours.
But Speaker Nabih Berri, the chief interlocutor between President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, appeared determined to continue efforts to reach a compromise. The speaker’s solution would return all cellular revenues to the state after the Aug. 31 deadline for the sale of the networks, while giving the two cellular firms exclusive rights to manage the network in return for a payment to be specified in accordance with international standards.
Sources close to Berri said mediation efforts had hit a deadlock, but did not rule out the possibility of an agreement before Thursday’s Cabinet session.
While the proposed formula appears to please Lahoud, Hariri and both Cellis and LibanCell have reportedly refused the principle of single management for the cellular firms.
According to sources familiar with the issue, the premier insisted on maintaining build-operate-transfer contracts with these companies, while increasing the state’s share of revenues to 40 percent.
The state currently receives 20 percent of the companies’ revenues, in addition to 6 cents per minute for every call.
But sources close to Baabda said such an increase was already guaranteed in the eighth year of the current contracts and did not signal an effort by Hariri to reach a compromise.
Intensive contacts were made at Nijmeh Square, where Hariri met with Berri, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi and Marjayoun-Hasbaya MP Ali Hassan Khalil. After the 30-minute session, Hariri left alone, followed minutes later by Khalil and Aridi. On his way out, the information minister said “a settlement is under way,” but asked for patience.
Interior Minister Elias Murr arrived at Parliament shortly thereafter. Although his meeting with the speaker was scheduled beforehand, his visit was also placed in the context of ongoing mediation efforts.
Berri and Murr later left together, continuing their talks over lunch, and Murr visited Hariri in the evening.
Meetings were expected to continue during the night, in a rerun of Monday efforts when discussions lasted until 1am.
Commenting on the controversy after a meeting with media representatives at his office, Aridi said: “Efforts are being deployed to reach a solution prior to the Thursday Cabinet meeting.”
Aridi also said efforts were under way to establish a “legal political formula” for the cellular issue, which would guarantee the state’s rights and interests prior to the auction and tendering operations stipulated by the cellular law.
Commenting on disagreements between Lahoud and Hariri, Aridi said dissent was “healthy” provided it did not transgress the law and the political system, adding that “voting in the Cabinet is not illegal.”
For his part, Energy and Water Minister Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Beydoun said any mistake in the “complex” cellular file could cost the government “hundred of millions of dollars.”
Also, US Ambassador Vincent Battle on Tuesday praised Lebanon’s efforts to privatize its cellular network, but refused to weigh in on the debate over the future of the telecommunications sector after the Aug. 31 sell-off deadline.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Telecommunications Minister Jean-Louis Qordahi, the ambassador acknowledged that US companies are interested in investing in Lebanon’s cellular sector, and said he wanted to provide all possible assistance.
The ambassador said his conversation with Qordahi focused on the government’s privatization efforts as a “basic” part of a broader economic reform package.

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