ANSD : Lebanese Cabinet lineup this week if no further hitches

FRI 19 - 4 - 2024

Date: Dec 20, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Lebanese Cabinet lineup this week if no further hitches

_{Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Barring last-minute hitches, a 30-member national unity Cabinet is set to be announced by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Friday night following a meeting with six Hezbollah-backed Sunni MPs at Baabda Palace, official sources said Wednesday.

“Things are on the right track and the Cabinet formation decrees will be issued Friday evening following Prime Minister Hariri’s meeting with the six Sunni lawmakers,” a source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star.

The MPs, whose demand for representation has stalled the Cabinet formation since late October, are to meet with President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace before they are joined later by Hariri, the source said.

The source added that the premier-designate’s meeting would be capped by the issuance of the Cabinet lineup decrees by Aoun and Hariri.

His meeting with the six Sunni MPs not affiliated with the Future Movement is part of a five-point deal reached by General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim during his “successful” talks with the MPs Tuesday that resolved the last remaining hurdle to the Cabinet formation. The six MPs had long requested a meeting with Hariri, viewing it as an essential move in recognizing their representation in the next government.

Ibrahim said his meeting with the Sunni MPs was part of an initiative Aoun launched last week in a bid to resolve the issue. A key element of Aoun’s initiative calls for representing the six MPs from the president’s share with a candidate from outside their group, rather than one of the six lawmakers themselves, as they had previously demanded.

Before they head to Baabda Palace Friday, the six MPs, including MP Faisal Karami, who is currently out of the country, are set to meet to agree on a single candidate to represent them. At least four of the six have nominated their own candidates for a ministerial seat.

However, after Jawad Adra, nominated by MP Qassem Hashem, emerged as the favored candidate, cracks formed among members of the group, known as the “Consultative Gathering.” The five MPs held Wednesday what local media outlets called a “stormy” meeting, where they failed to agree on adopting Adra as a single candidate.

Adra is the founder and managing partner of Information International SAL, a leading Beirut-based research and consultancy that covers the entire Middle East. As in previous Cabinet lineups, sovereign ministries will be distributed among the country’s major blocs. The Future Movement will retain the Interior and Telecommunications ministries. Although Mohamed Choucair, president of the Chamber of Commerce, is widely tipped to take the Telecoms Ministry, it was not immediately known who would replace caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk.

Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil from the Amal Movement will retain his post, as will caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement.

Former Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, from the FPM, would be named defense minister, replacing Yaacoub Sarraf, also from the FPM.

Hezbollah is expected to get three ministries for the first time, instead of two, including the Health Ministry, despite local and international warnings against allocating the portfolio to a party labeled as a “terrorist organization” by the United States and some Arab Gulf countries.

Sources at Hariri’s Downtown residence said the prime minister-designate was satisfied with the progress. “Moves will be stepped up to announce the Cabinet lineup later this week,” a source told The Daily Star.

Caretaker Youth and Sports Minister Mohammad Fneish, one of two Hezbollah ministers in the outgoing Cabinet, said his party would provide the names of its ministers to Hariri “now that the last obstacle has been resolved.”

“There is no reason for any delay in the announcement of the Cabinet lineup this week,” Fneish told The Daily Star.

Hezbollah has blocked the Cabinet formation by refusing to provide the names of its three ministers until the six MPs’ demand has been met.

The General Security chief continued his shuttle diplomacy Wednesday, meeting with Aoun and Bassil to brief them on the results of his talks with the Sunni MPs. Ibrahim also met with Hagop Pakradounian, head of the Tashnag Party, and caretaker Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian, and discussed a last-minute snag over Armenian representation in the next government between the Tashnag Party and the Lebanese Forces.

Speaking to local TV stations, both Pakradounian and Guidanian denied there was an issue over Armenian representation. “There is no Armenian problem. A weighty ministry will be allocated to the Tashnag Party,” Guidanian said. Pakradounian said Guidanian would retain the Tourism Ministry.

After talks with Ibrahim, Bassil met with Hariri at the premier-designate’s Downtown residence. Bassil said the new government would be announced in a couple of days. “The birth of the government has taken time, but we hope that it would see the light in the next couple of days, thus the Lebanese would spend the holidays in the presence of a new government,” he told reporters after the meeting. “But the most important thing is to achieve everything related to the new government as soon as possible, from the policy statement to the vote of confidence and starting work. By this we will be showing from the first meeting of the government that it came to work 24 hours a day to make achievements for the country and its citizens and revitalize the economy. This is the real present that we can give to the Lebanese.”

The FPM leader stressed the need for coherence within the new government in order to be productive. “There is still some work to be done by Prime Minister Hariri. What concerns us are the basic principles on which the government was formed. We have always talked about fair representation and this has been respected in content and form. What is more important is that the government be coherent, without rivalries or problems,” he said.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri said Parliament could hold a session for a confidence vote after Jan. 6 if a new government were formed before the holidays. Speaking during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence, Berri said: “We are close to the Cabinet formation.”

“The government formation is important. But what is more important is that this government be homogenous in order to accomplish things, face challenges and take decisions on all challenges,” he said.

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