THU 28 - 3 - 2024
 
Date: Mar 4, 2011
Source: The Daily Star
Lebanon: Cabinet formation may come after tribunal's indictment

Friday, March 04, 2011
by hussein dakroub


BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati’s attempts to form a new government appear to be marking time, with no solution in sight for the hurdles holding up the Cabinet’s formation. There are signals that the government’s formation could be delayed until after the impending indictment into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is issued later this month.


In this case, the impending indictment could provide Mikati with a badly needed reprieve to try to break the government impasse. Once the indictment is issued, the entire country and leaders of rival factions will be preoccupied with how to contain the grave repercussions, especially since the indictment is widely expected to implicate some Hezbollah members in Hariri’s assassination.
The resulting row between the feuding parties over the indictment would give Mikati a pretext to delay the government’s formation.
Media reports said the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is probing Hariri’s assassination, is expected to issue its indictment this month.


A source close to Mikati insisted that the premier-designate refused to give a date or abide by any deadline as to when the government could be formed, even though some politicians are linking the Cabinet formation to the indictment and also to the mass rally planned by the March 14 coalition on March 14 to mark the coalition’s sixth anniversary.


Since he was appointed by President Michel Sleiman on Jan. 25 to form a new government to replace caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s toppled Cabinet, Mikati has emphasized that he was seeking to form an all-embracing government, including both the March 8 and March 14 parties.
Now following last week’s decision by the March 14 coalition not to participate in the government, this was supposed to make Mikati’s job easier. It didn’t.


Mikati’s attempts to assemble a homogeneous Cabinet team have run into trouble mainly over the problem of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s tough demands for participation. Aoun is insisting on a large Christian participation in the new government commensurate with the size of his Change and Reform bloc, the second largest bloc in Parliament after Hariri’s Future bloc.

 

He is also vying with Sleiman over the key Interior Ministry portfolio, which he wants allotted to a member of his bloc. Sleiman was reported to be adamant about retaining the caretaker Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud.


Several attempts to make Aoun soften his tough demands have failed as the FPM leader refused to budge.
Speaker Nabih Berri signaled that the government’s formation will take more time. “I think there is no problem in the formation of the government. But this does not mean there are no difficulties. I think Prime Minister [-designate] Mikati still has the time to deal with this issue,” Berri told reporters after meeting Sleiman Wednesday.


An-Nahar newspaper said Thursday there are increasing signals pointing to ruling out the government’s formation before two major events take place this month: The sixth anniversary of the March 14 movement on March 14; and the STL’s indictment.


It quoted sources close to the STL as saying that tribunal-related developments were in a race with the government formation process, raising the possibility that the Cabinet formation could be held up until after the indictment was issued.
Political sources earlier said that both Mikati and his ally, Hezbollah, prefer to wait for the indictment to be issued before the government is formed.

 

Mikati and Hezbollah are concerned over how to deal with the repercussions and consequences of the indictment, which could destabilize the country amid rising political tension between the March 8 and March 14 factions.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who has repeatedly denied his party’s involvement in Hariri’s assassination, has vowed to reject any indictment targeting any party member. He dismissed the STL as an “American and Israeli tool” designed to target Hezbollah by stirring up sectarian strife in Lebanon. Nasrallah last year called on Saad Hariri’s Cabinet to end its cooperation with the STL and on the Lebanese to stop their cooperation with the tribunal.


In fact, Hariri’s national unity Cabinet fell victim to the STL following the resignations of the ministers of Hezbollah and its March 8 allies on Jan. 12 in a long-simmering dispute over the tribunal and how to contain the repercussions of the indictment.


 



 
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