Date: Aug 20, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Lebanon: Fears of open-ended crisis as talks stall for Eid Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: The Cabinet formation stalemate, now in its third month with no solution in sight, is threatening to plunge the country into an open-ended government crisis with all the negative consequences it entails for the country’s stability and struggling economy, political sources said Sunday. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s departure for abroad Saturday to spend the Eid al-Adha holiday with his family is bound to put Cabinet formation efforts on hold. The three-day Eid al-Adha holiday begins Tuesday. “The country is on vacation. So is the government formation process,” a political source familiar with the process said. “Worse still, the internal complications in the Cabinet formation bid are threatening to throw the country into a prolonged government crisis, as well as inviting external factors that will further complicate the crisis,” the source said. Hariri’s latest round of consultations with representatives from feuding political parties has so far failed to overcome major hurdles blocking the formation of a national unity government that represents all major blocs. The obstacles center on the issue of representation of the Christian and Druze communities, as well as of Sunni lawmakers not affiliated with Hariri’s Future Movement, in the next government. Further complicating the process is the highly divisive issue of normalizing political relations with the Syrian regime – brought up by Hezbollah and its allies recently ahead of the government’s formation. Hariri and other Lebanese parties, namely the Lebanese Forces, staunchly oppose any contacts with the regime before a political settlement is reached to end the 7-year-old war in Syria. Hariri was unequivocal in his rejection of normalizing relations with the regime, saying last week that “no government would be formed” if some parties insisted on linking the Cabinet formation to ties with Syria. As political rivals refused to budge on their demands for key ministerial portfolios in statements over the weekend, caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil again warned of dire consequences for the country’s economic and financial situation if the formation is further delayed. “We must endeavor to pull the country out of its crises, the latest of which is the political crisis and the delay in the formation of the government despite all the difficulties,” Khalil, a key political aide to Speaker Nabih Berri, said at a ceremony in the southern town of Blida.He warned that the delay was turning into “a real crisis that will obstruct solutions to the economic and financial crises from which we are suffering.” Both Hariri and Khalil have underlined the urgency to quickly form a new government that would carry out economic reforms demanded by the CEDRE conference to salvage the ailing economy, burdened by more than $80 billion in public debt. Lebanon has the third-largest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world, touching more than 150 percent at the end of 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund. Donor countries at the CEDRE conference held in Paris on April 6 pledged more than $11 billion in grants and soft loans to finance investment and infrastructure projects in Lebanon. Caretaker Justice Minister Salim Jreissati from the Free Patriotic Movement said a breakthrough in the government formation impasse was possible by the end of this month if Hariri shows decisiveness. “August carries with it all victories,” Jreissati wrote on Twitter, referring to the anniversary of the Lebanese Army’s “Fajr al-Jaroud” operation that ousted Daesh (ISIS) militants from the northeastern border with Syria last summer, as well as the 12th anniversary of the end of Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006. “The end of August will also bring with it a solution to the government deadlock if Hariri makes up his mind and acts decisively.” Jreissati’s remarks come as the FPM and the Lebanese Forces, the country’s two main Christian parties, are locked in a bitter struggle over the community’s representation in the new government. LF ministers and lawmakers have blamed caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the FPM leader, for the Cabinet formation standoff, accusing him of seeking to prevent the LF from obtaining a significant Cabinet share based on the results of the May 6 parliamentary elections, when the party boosted its representation from eight to 15 MPs. “The Lebanese Forces has made a lot of concessions, the latest of which is that it has accepted four ministerial portfolios, including a sovereign ministry, in order to facilitate the government’s birth,” LF’s Zahle MP George Oqeis said in a statement. “We haven’t heard any bloc opposing granting [the LF] a sovereign ministry except Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.” But MP Mario Aoun, a member of the FPM’s parliamentary Strong Lebanon bloc headed by Bassil, accused the LF of obstructing the government formation with its insistence on a sovereign ministry. “The issue with the Lebanese Forces is that they don’t differentiate in the government formation process between [the share] of the president and that of the Strong Lebanon bloc. The president has his own [Cabinet] share, particularly the Defense Ministry, because he is the supreme commander of the armed forces,” Aoun told the state-run Lebanon Radio station. “The [Strong Lebanon] bloc is the strongest in Christian [areas] according to the results of the elections. The Lebanese Forces must abandon [its demand] for a sovereign portfolio,” he added. “The LF ministers adopted a policy of obstruction against the FPM ministers [in Cabinet] despite the [2016] Maarab understanding,” Aoun said, referring to the agreement signed by the two parties that achieved inter-Christian reconciliation and contributed to the election of Michel Aoun as president in October 2016. The problem of Druze representation has also defied a solution amid insistence by former MP Walid Joumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, on appointing the three ministers reserved for the Druze sect in a 30-member government. Joumblatt’s demand is aimed at preventing his Druze rival, MP Talal Arslan, from being named a minister. This position was reaffirmed by MP Wael Abu Faour from the PSP’s parliamentary Democratic Gathering bloc. “The PSP is the one that names the three Druze ministers. This is irreversible,” he said at a PSP rally Saturday. MP Bilal Abdullah from the same bloc implicitly lashed out at Bassil, accusing him of trying to twist Joumblatt’s arms. Addressing Bassil, Abdullah, speaking at a PSP event Sunday, said: “If you don’t show modesty, all [Aoun’s term] might be as if it doesn’t exist and all achievements you have promised the people would be as if they don’t exist. ... You have tried to twist the arms of Walid Joumblatt and the PSP in the elections, but you failed. Certainly, we will not allow you today to twist these arms.”