Date: Jul 11, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Berri to call Parliament session next week: report BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to call for a Parliament session to be held next week, a local daily reported Wednesday. Al-Akhbar newspaper said that Berri told his visitors Tuesday that he had decided not to call for a session to elect parliamentary committees and its members ahead of going on vacation last month, in hopes of an advancement in the government formation issue. “But this didn’t happen and I cannot wait any longer,” Berri was quoted as saying. Sources told the daily that in next few hours the speaker will move toward scheduling a Parliament session next week. “His [Hariri’s] concentration will be on three fronts; the [Free Patriotic Movement], the Lebanese Forces and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt,” Berri said, according to Al-Akhbar. Other local media outlets reported Wednesday that Hariri was looking into the possibility of holding separate meetings with Joumblatt, FPM head Gebran Bassil and LF leader Samir Geagea in hopes of a breakthrough. Two major hurdles facing Hariri in his attempts to form a 30-member national unity government are the LF and Druze representation. Joumblatt has insisted that the PSP gets the three ministerial posts reserved for the Druze sect, in a move that appears to aimed at preventing his Druze rival, MP Talal Arslan, from being named as a minister. Christian representation in the government has also caused tension between the FPM and the LF. “The obstacles remained as they are and they’re deadlocked with the Christian parties,” Berri told his visitors, Al-Akhbar said. “Nothing shows that there is a serious advancement [in putting the differences to rest].”