ANSD : Lebanon: Cabinet talks make progress on Christian representation

WED 24 - 4 - 2024

Date: Aug 11, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Lebanon: Cabinet talks make progress on Christian representation

_{Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s meeting with caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has made progress toward resolving the problem of Christian representation in the new government, a development that will encourage Speaker Nabih Berri to intervene to overcome other hurdles, political sources said Friday.

“The Hariri-Bassil meeting has made progress toward overcoming the Christian representation hurdle between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces,” a source familiar with the government formation process told The Daily Star.

“This breakthrough is bound to encourage Speaker Berri to step in to resolve the other obstacles blocking the formation of a new government, mainly those related to the representation of the Druze sect, the Marada Movement and Hezbollah,” the source said.

Local media outlets said Bassil, the FPM leader, agreed during his meeting with Hariri Thursday night to granting the Lebanese Forces four ministerial posts – two of them key portfolios – but not necessarily a sovereign ministry as LF officials have been demanding.

In response to the reports, an FPM source said: “Bassil is not the one who decides shares and portfolios. He is only concerned with the portfolios and shares of the Strong Lebanon bloc.”

Bassil heads the FPM’s parliamentary Strong Lebanon bloc, which comprises 29 lawmakers, including allies, making it the largest bloc in the newly elected Parliament. He was reported to be seeking 11 ministers for the FPM and President Michel Aoun’s share that would grant him veto power in a 30-member government.

In a fresh bid to break the government formation deadlock, now in its third month, Hariri Thursday launched a new round of consultations that culminated with an icebreaking meeting with Bassil, who has been at the center of a bitter struggle between the FPM and the LF over Cabinet shares for the Christian community.

The Hariri-Bassil meeting came hours after the prime minister-designate sat down with Berri, signaling that the wheels of the Cabinet formation have been set into motion.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Berri at his Ain al-Tineh residence Thursday, Hariri said the new flurry of political activity focused on the parties’ shares and representation in the new government.He added that he had asked Berri for assistance in resolving the remaining hurdles delaying the government formation.

Berri was quoted as saying that his role in helping in the government formation efforts depended on the outcome of the Hariri-Bassil meeting.

Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a top political aide to Berri, met Friday with Hariri, who briefed him on the results of his talks with Bassil. Later, Khalil relayed the results to Berri.

“There is a new movement at the government [formation] level. We hope that things will move forward,” Khalil said after meeting Hariri at the prime minister-designate’s Downtown Beirut residence.

Hariri was expected to meet over the weekend with officials from the LF and the Progressive Socialist Party to discuss with them Christian and Druze representation in the new government.

The FPM source described Bassil’s meeting with Hariri as “positive and even excellent” at the political and personal levels, and implicitly blamed the LF’s demand for a significant Cabinet share for the deadlock.

“There was full agreement. Prime Minister Hariri is aware that the Strong Lebanon bloc is not demanding more than its right. Therefore, the problem has not been with it [the bloc] from the beginning, but with those who are demanding more than their size and right,” the source said, clearly referring to the LF. The source said the Hariri-Bassil meeting has confirmed beyond any doubt that the 2016 political agreement that led to the election of Aoun as president and brought Hariri back to the premiership still existed and was intact, contrary to attempts to distort it.

Bassil told Hariri that he agreed with him on the formation of a national unity government and that the prime minister-designate will continue his contacts on this basis and according to fair criteria, the source said, adding that the focus of the meeting was to reach the “best formula for the birth of a balanced and effective government.”

Bassil, according to the source, rejected accusations by LF officials that he was blocking the government formation by refusing to give the LF the Cabinet share it was demanding. “Bassil has called from the beginning to search for a solution to hurdles with others,” the source said.

Commenting on the intensified flurry of activity to accelerate the government formation, NBN TV, affiliated with Berri’s Amal Movement, reported Friday night LF sources as saying: “The ball today is in the court of the Free Patriotic Movement which must give us our right and recognize it.”

The sources said that nothing specific has so far been presented to the LF in the new round of consultations. “There are several [Cabinet] formulas proposed by the prime minister-designate. They are all being discussed. There is a tendency to set up a balanced government similar to the current one with some modifications,” the LF sources said, ruling out a quick and easy solution to the government impasse.

In addition to the LF-FPM rivalry over Christian representation, there is the problem of the Druze representation amid insistence by PSP leader Walid Joumblatt on naming the three ministers allocated for the Druze sect.

Joumblatt’s demand is aimed at preventing his Druze rival MP Talal Arslan from being named a minister. Bassil and other FPM lawmakers have supported Arslan’s demand to be named a minister.

Hezbollah’s insistence on being allocated the Health Ministry is causing a stir after Hariri was reported to have informed Berri of the international community’s disapproval.

However, because the U.S. labels Hezbollah a “terrorist organization,” reports have indicated that international aid could be threatened if it is tied to a ministry controlled by the group. In addition, current international sanctions make it difficult for Hezbollah members to travel.

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