BEIRUT: The Highest Islamic Council, Lebanon’s highest Sunni religious body, has warned against attempts to undercut the premiership’s prerogatives, a day after ministers from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement strongly objected to the exception of the prime minister from a draft law to ban MPs from serving in the Cabinet. In the meantime, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora rejected Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s linking the payment of Lebanon’s share to a U.N.-backed court to the funding of UNESCO.

The Council’s warning came in a statement issued after a meeting chaired by the Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, at Dar al-Fatwa (the seat of the Sunni mufti) Saturday. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Siniora, former ministers and Sunni religious leaders.

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