A seemingly upset President Maithripala Sirisena walked out of the Cabinet meeting this morning, lamenting he was being attacked by both parties. 

This came in the wake of a chain of events that weakened President Sirisena's position in his own government. 

Two days ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the President could not continue in office until 2020. It was also revealed that a group of UNP MPs were negotiating with members of the Rajapaksa family to impeach the President, if the latter acted with no respect to the unity government framework. 

At the same time, several UNP MPs launched scathing attacks on the President saying the latter was trying to 'kick the ladder' by working against the UNP. Parliamentarian S.M. Marikkar, a Colombo District UNP MP, referred to President Sirisena as a 'pick-pocket President'. 

The President's outburst at the Cabinet meeting this morning, informed sources said, was the outcome of all these developments. 

It is learnt that before walking out of the meeting, the President had delivered an emotional statement about the hardships he had to deal with. The President had said he never intended to back stab the UNP or its leadership.

All Cabinet ministers were taken by surprise when the President suddenly walked out of the meeting, saying he was being unfairly treated by government members. 

At this point, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had appeared to be the peacemaker. "The Premier had a long closed-door discussion with the President and brought him back to the meeting, after about an hour," a cabinet minister told Asian Mirror.