ANSD : Hariri set to discuss Druze representation with PSP

THU 25 - 4 - 2024

Date: Aug 13, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Hariri set to discuss Druze representation with PSP

_{Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Armed with an imminent solution to the problem of Christian representation, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is set to step up consultations with rival leaders this week in an attempt to accelerate the formation of a new government, political sources said Sunday. Hariri will meet with officials from the Progressive Socialist Party to discuss Druze representation, after having met over the weekend with caretaker Information Minister Melhem Riachi, with whom he discussed the proposed solution to the problem of Christian representation in the new government, a political source close to the Cabinet formation process told The Daily Star.

Cabinet shares for the Christian community are fiercely contested between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces, the country’s two main Christian parties.

Hariri is also expected to meet with officials from the Marada Movement, headed by former MP Sleiman Frangieh, whose party is insisting on either retaining the Public Works Ministry or being allocated the Energy Ministry instead, the source said.

Sources at Baabda Palace said Hariri’s efforts would now be centered on resolving the Druze representation problem after overcoming the Christian representation hurdle.

“A solution to the Christian representation problem has been reached which calls for allocating the Lebanese Forces four ministries – two of them key portfolios – but not a sovereign ministry,” a source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star. “A solution to the Christian representation problem requires a solution to the Druze representation hurdle. It’s a link in a chain,” the source said.

“Therefore, efforts will now be concentrated on resolving the Druze representation problem amid insistence by [PSP leader] Walid Joumblatt on monopolizing the Druze representation in the new government,” the source said. He added that Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Joumblatt, had promised Hariri that he would help in overcoming the Druze representation obstacle.

“Should the outcome of Hariri’s consultations prove to be positive and the obstacles are eliminated, the prime minister-designate might visit Baabda Palace this week to present President Michel Aoun with a draft lineup of a 30-member Cabinet,” the source said.

Despite the reported solution to the Christian representation problem, a senior LF official had reiterated the party’s demand for a sovereign ministry. “The Lebanese Forces has dropped its demand for five ministers in favor of four ministers, including a sovereign ministry,” MP George Adwan, deputy head of the LF, told Al-Jadeed TV Sunday night.

“No party will have veto power because the [new] government wants to work. ... There is an understanding in principle on the distribution of Cabinet shares. It’s the Lebanese Forces’ right to have a sovereign ministry,” Adwan said, adding that Berri had told the LF officials that he did not oppose granting the LF a sovereign ministry.

Similarly, two members of Joumblatt’s parliamentary bloc reiterated the PSP’s demand to be allocated the three Druze ministers.

“There is no Druze hurdle [to the government formation]. Druze representation is nonnegotiable,” caretaker Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh told MTV Sunday night, describing the FPM, headed by caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, as “fascist.”

“It is not permissible for a family and fascist movement to intervene in the issue of our [Druze] representation in the government,” Hamadeh said.

Speaking at a PSP congress in Beirut, MP Hadi Aboul Hosn, also from Joumblatt’s bloc, said: “We reject that our rights be infringed upon. On this basis, we uphold [our demand] for three ministers as a minimum.

“We will never relinquish our rights in respect of the mandate granted to us by the people [in the parliamentary elections].”

Joumblatt’s demand is aimed at preventing his Druze rival MP Talal Arslan from being named a minister. Backed by Bassil, Arslan, an ally of the FPM, has insisted on a ministry.

Riachi, one of three LF ministers in Hariri’s caretaker Cabinet, described his meeting with the prime minister-designate as “good.”

Ahead of his sit-down with Hariri Saturday, Riachi met with Berri, who was reported to be assisting the prime minister-designate in his attempts to form a national unity government representing all the political parties.

Describing his meeting with Berri as “excellent,” Riachi said: “The developments are positive, and Speaker Berri is helping the prime minister-designate in untangling the knots. So did Al-Hakim [LF chief Samir Geagea], who offered maximum facilitation to Hariri.”

Taking an indirect jab at Bassil, who has been accused by LF ministers and lawmakers of seeking to prevent the LF from obtaining a significant Cabinet share based on the results of the elections, when the party boosted its representation from eight to 15 MPs, Riachi said: “No one can count his size twice.”

Hariri last week 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 was reported to have made progress toward overcoming the problem of Christian representation.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah restated its call for the formation of a new government embracing all the parties.

“The [Cabinet formation process] is revolving in a vicious circle. Probably, the prime minister-designate will talk about the need to adopt clear mechanisms binding to everyone that will be adopted for representing all parliamentary blocs,” MP Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, said at a memorial ceremony in the southern town of Zebdine.

“We hope the government will be formed soon because the social and security situation in the country is still under pressure and needs a government to take care of it,” he said.

Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a key political aide to Berri, also called for the quick formation of a “strong and capable government,” whose representation should reflect the results of parliamentary elections.

“We call for a genuine national unity government in which most of political parties participate. [This government] should serve as a meeting place for dialogue and a center of the reform decision-making in the country, in terms of political institutions and in terms of decision-making in the social and economic fields,” Khalil said at a ceremony in the southern town of Taibeh honoring students who passed official exams.

Warning that the country’s dire financial situation cannot endure a prolonged stalemate in the government formation, Khalil called on rival factions not to waste time in “futile discussions on sizes and [ministerial] portfolios.”

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