By Hussein Dakroub and Hassan Lakiss

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati began work Monday on a Cabinet lineup to be dominated by the March 8 coalition shortly after Kataeb (Phalange) leader Amin Gemayel announced that talks with Mikati on the March 14 bloc’s participation in the new government had reached a dead end.

“Consultations on the formation of the government have reached a dead end as a result of the conditions put by the March 8 camp,” Gemayel told a news conference at the Kataeb Party’s headquarters in Saifi.

He accused Hezbollah and its March 8 allies of seeking to unilaterally control the new government by putting “impossible conditions” on the March 14 participation.

Gemayel’s remarks were sure to rule out the possibility of the March 14 coalition’s participation in an all-embracing government which Mikati has promised to form since he was appointed by President Michel Sleiman last month to replace caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s toppled Cabinet.

A source close to Mikati said that the negotiations on the March 14 participation in the government fell apart after the prime minister-designate rejected Gemayel’s demand for four ministers. The source ruled out the possibility of new talks between Mikati and Gemayel.

Mikati began work on a Cabinet lineup without granting absolute majority or veto power for any single party, the source said. In the one-sided government, Sleiman will get three or four ministers, while MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc will get nine to 10 ministers, the source said. Mikati will have at least six ministers, the source added.

A senior March 8 source said while there were no major hurdles blocking the formation of the government, some complicated issues remained to be resolved. He identified the allocation of the Interior and Justice portfolios and the size of Sleiman’s representation as the main issues still to be agreed upon.

Gemayel has held three rounds of talks with Mikati on the March 14 coalition’s possible participation in the government. He warned after meeting Mikati last Friday of the consequences of the formation of a one-sided government dominated by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies.

Gemayel repeated the warning Monday. “With all objectivity, I warn against forming a one-sided government that imposes its views on everyone. We are seeing what is happening around us. We don’t need to go through this kind of atmosphere,” Gemayel said, clearly referring to the popular uprising against the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“We fear that such a path [one-sided government] will not serve the country’s interest. Whoever seeks a one-sided government must bear the consequences,” he said.
Gemayel said Sleiman must intervene to reach agreement on a government that includes all the parties.

“A one-sided government cripples the role of the president and Cabinet. When all decisions are taken in the party’s kitchens and are put before the Cabinet without the possibility of objection, neither with a half or two-thirds (of Cabinet members’ votes), what will then be the role of the president and the prime minister?” he asked.

Gemayel, who met with Hariri after the news conference, said that since the government crisis erupted with the collapse of Hariri’s Cabinet on Jan. 12, he has extended his hand to Mikati in an attempt to reach a government that represents the largest possible sections of the Lebanese and serves the national interest.

“We gave the prime minister-designate a chance to succeed in his mission, especially since his appointment Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has expressed readiness to form a government that complies with the requirements of national accord,” Gemayel said.

He added that in his meetings with Mikati, he has tried to take into account the concerns of all the parties in order to find the necessary conditions for a government of “real partnership in decisions, particularly in crucial decisions, and not theoretical partnership.”

“But following long days of contacts in which we were in contact with our allies to take a joint stance, it turned out that despite the premier-designate’s good intentions, impossible conditions were imposed on him by the March 8 team which nearly brought us to a dead end,” Gemayel said. He did not say what these conditions were.
He added that the March 8 coalition imposed demands and conditions that contradicted with the requirements of partnership in the government at “these difficult circumstances through which Lebanon and the region are passing.”
Despite the deadlock in the talks on the government formation, Gemayel said he was ready for a new round of negotiations with Mikati.

“The negotiations have reached a dead end. But our hand remains extended if there is an intention for resuming the contacts,” he said. “Our hand will remain extended. We cannot say that the doors are closed in politics. But at this moment, after all the contacts we have made, we could not reach a solution to achieve the national interest and real accord.”

Gemayel said Hezbollah had great influence on the government formation efforts. He added that he did not get answers from Mikati on two issues which he did not explain.

But Gemayel’s son, Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel told The Daily Star Sunday that his party was waiting for answers from the prime minister-designate on its demands for guarantees regarding Hezbollah’s weapons and the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). “We want guarantees that the international tribunal will not be abolished,” he said.

March 14 issued a statement after a meeting at the residence of Hariri in Downtown Beirut saying that it was still waiting for an answer from Mikati to their demands, which include preserving ties with the STL.

Aoun said he expected a “homogenous” government capable of ruling and implementing its decisions would be formed. “There will be no vacuum, neither in decisions, nor in any government sector,” he told a news conference after chairing a meeting of his Change and Reform bloc.

Since his appointment on Jan. 25, Mikati, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition, has promised to form a government that includes all the feuding parties. However, his attempts to set up a national unity Cabinet have hit snags after Hariri said that his Future bloc would not join a government headed by a March 8-backed candidate.

The March 14 coalition has urged Mikati to clarify his position on the STL and the issue of illegitimate arms before deciding on its participation in the government. Hariri’s Future bloc has also called on Mikati to make a public commitment not to end Lebanon’s cooperation with the STL, as demanded by Hezbollah and its allies.

The STL has sharply divided the Lebanese into two rival camps and is threatening to destabilize the country. The STL’s indictment is widely expected to accuse some Hezbollah members of involvement in Hariri’s assassination, raising fears of sectarian strife.

Caretaker Education Minister Hassan Mneimneh told the Voice of Lebanon radio station that the March 8 coalition does not want March 14 groups represented in the new government “because it wants to run the country’s affairs and its issues according to its mood and at its own will.”

“The March 8 groups want to unilaterally control the country and take it where they want. Therefore, they do not want participation by any other party,” Mneimneh said.