ANSD : Lebanon: LF demands Energy or Defense as substitute

SAT 20 - 4 - 2024

Date: Oct 22, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Lebanon: LF demands Energy or Defense as substitute

_{Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Efforts were stepped up over the weekend to resolve the problem of the Lebanese Forces’ Cabinet share after its demand for the Justice Ministry had been spurned by President Michel Aoun, casting gloom over the government formation process, which this week enters its sixth month of deadlock.

“I don’t see an imminent breakthrough in the Cabinet formation crisis, given the last-minute snag over the Lebanese Forces’ representation that emerged last week and brought things backward,” a political source familiar with the formation process told The Daily Star Sunday.

A source at Baabda Palace echoed a similar gloomy outlook, saying the LF’s Cabinet share was the last major stumbling block to the government formation.

“The Lebanese Forces’ representation is posing a major hurdle to the government formation after President Aoun insisted that the Justice Ministry be part of his Cabinet share,” the source told The Daily Star.

“The Lebanese Forces is now demanding a significant public services-related portfolio as a substitute for the Justice Ministry,” the source said.

In addition to the LF representation, there is a lesser important problem facing the Cabinet formation, which is demands by Sunni lawmakers outside Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s Future Movement to be represented in the new government, the source added.

Hariri had previously said he wanted Sunni representation to be confined to his Future Movement.

Hariri intensified his consultations over the weekend, meeting with senior LF officials in a bid to resolve the problem of the party’s representation. Hariri met Sunday night at his Downtown residence with caretaker Information Minister Melhem Riachi for the third day in a row, a day after he had talks with LF leader Samir Geagea, who was accompanied by Riachi.

Riachi, one of three LF ministers in Hariri’s outgoing Cabinet, did not speak to reporters after the 30-minute meeting with the premier-designate. Riachi later met with MP Wael Abu Faour as a special envoy of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt at a restaurant in the Gemmayzeh area, the National News Agency reported, without giving details of their talks. An LF source said they were waiting for a proposal from Hariri Monday.

Saturday’s Hariri-Geagea meeting dealt with the latest political developments, particularly the Cabinet formation issue, a statement from Hariri’s media office said.

“The atmosphere is positive, but things need some time. What matters is to reach a balanced government, Riachi said after the meeting.A political source said Geagea demanded during his meeting with Hariri either the Energy Ministry or Defense Ministry if Aoun insisted on retaining the Justice portfolio. “The Lebanese Forces insists on a weighty representation in the new government, or else it will not participate,” Geagea told Hariri, according to the source.

Hariri assured Geagea that he would not form a government without the LF, saying he wanted significant representation for the LF, the source said, adding the premier-designate promised to convey Geagea’s demands to Aoun.

The Hariri-Geagea talks came a day after caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, told Hariri during his meeting with him that the Justice Ministry, long coveted by the LF, would remain part of Aoun’s share after the president ceded the position of the deputy prime minister to the LF.

The LF has been offered four posts: The deputy prime minister’s position and the Social Affairs, Culture and Labor ministries, the Baabda source said.

Former LF Antoine Zahra accused Bassil of reneging on a compromise that called for allocating the Justice Ministry to the LF.

“A compromise was reached whereby the Lebanese Forces would be granted the Justice portfolio. Prime Minister Hariri had initially agreed to grant the Lebanese Forces the Justice portfolio. But Minister Bassil met with Hariri [Friday] to tell him that the Justice Ministry will be part of the president’s share,” Zahra told The Daily Star.

Describing Geagea’s meeting with Hariri as “very good,” Zahra said the Cabinet formation process was now facing two problems: the representation of the LF and Sunni lawmakers outside the Future Movement following last week’s speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah called in his speech for the “inclusion of some groups [in the Cabinet]” a clear reference to Sunni lawmakers outside the Future Movement who have demanded that they be represented in the new government.

MP Wehbi Qatisha from the LF’s parliamentary Strong Republic bloc went further by implicitly accusing the FPM of seeking to topple Hariri.

“The Cabinet formation is back to square one. Every time we displaced positivity over the Cabinet formation, they [the FPM] further toughened their position. Why? Because they want to topple Hariri exactly as they did in 2011 when Hariri was toppled at the gate of the White House,” Qatisha told the Central News Agency.

He was referring to the resignation of the FPM and Hezbollah ministers and their allies from Hariri’s national unity government in January 2011, when Hariri was meeting at the White House with the then-U.S. President Barak Obama. The resignation of 11 ministers, just over one-third of the 30-member government, led to the collapse of the government.

“Today, they [the FPM] are trying again to topple Hariri at the gates of the presidential palace so that they can alone be in power,” Qatisha added.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said the government formation appeared to be uncertain following last week’s setback that has put the formation process on hold.

“It is no longer possible to talk about optimism or pessimism in the Cabinet issue. According to available information, as long as there is a certain mechanism for the formation and one side that can place a veto and thus block the formation process ... then this means we can’t know whether the government will be formed in the near or distant future,” Qassem said, speaking during a memorial ceremony in the southern town of Sultanieh.

Qassem appeared to be implicitly referring to the LF after Hariri has vowed not to form a national unity government without the LF.

Joumblatt warned in a tweet that Lebanon’s public debt, estimated at more than $80 billion, was rising while consultations over the formation of a new government continued.

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