Date: Oct 25, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Govt formation still stalled by LF share Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Government formation is still stymied by the problems of the representation of the Lebanese Forces and Sunni lawmakers outside the Future Movement, officials sources said Wednesday, raising doubts over an imminent resolution as promised by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. However, the repeated warnings by top leaders that the country faced the threat of an economic collapse could accelerate the government formation, a source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star. The source said a long-awaited meeting between President Michel Aoun and Hariri to agree on a final Cabinet lineup depended largely on a solution to the problems of the LF and independent Sunni lawmakers’ representation. “[It is] posing a major stumbling block to the formation,” the source said. The source added that the series of meetings Hariri had held in the past few days separately with caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, and caretaker Information Minister Melhem Riachi as a special envoy of LF leader Samir Geagea has so far failed to resolve the problem of the LF’s Cabinet share. “The Lebanese Forces has rejected a proposed formula that would allocate three ministries and the position of the deputy prime minister to the LF. They are demanding a weighty portfolio to be attached to the position of the deputy prime minister,” the source said. During his meeting with Riachi Sunday night, Hariri was reported to have offered the LF four posts: The deputy prime minister’s position and the social affairs, culture and labor ministries. After its demand for the Justice Ministry was spurned by Aoun, who insisted on allocating it to one of his loyalists as part of his share, the LF responded with its own proposal to Hariri with the aim of getting a Cabinet share commensurate with the results of the May parliamentary elections. The results boosted the number of the party’s MPs from eight to 15. “President Aoun has nothing to offer after he had offered all he can. The justice portfolio is his right and he will not cede it,” LBCI quoted sources at Baabda Palace as saying. The presidential palace canceled a scheduled meeting Wednesday between Aoun and Riachi to discuss the LF’s Cabinet share, reflecting tension between the president and the LF, local media outlets reported. A less important problem facing the Cabinet formation is the demand by Sunni lawmakers outside Hariri’s Future Movement to be represented in the new government, the Baabda source added. Hariri had previously said he wanted Sunni representation to be restricted to his party. But a group of “six independent Sunni lawmakers” issued a statement after their meeting Wednesday renewing what they called their “rightful demand, politically and constitutionally, and under all criteria followed in the formation of a national unity government to be represented in it.” Hariri, who was designated to form a new government on May 24, Tuesday promised to form the government in the next few days, saying he was working to resolve the problem of the LF’s representation. “The economic pressure on the country might contribute toward speeding up the government formation,” the Baabda source said. Earlier in the day, Speaker Nabih Berri sounded the alarm about what he called the “gravity of the economic situation in the country based on facts he has.” Speaking during the weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence, the speaker was quoted as saying: “The formation of the government is more than essential” to deal with the worsening economic crisis. “If the formation of the government is extremely important, harmony within the Cabinet is more important,” he said. Berri said there would be no problem between rival factions over the policy statement after the formation of the new government. “The main outlines of the policy statement will be based on the current government’s policy statement,” he said. Berri was also quoted by the daily Al-Akhbar as saying the country’s ailing economy, burdened by more than $80 billion in public debt, was at risk of collapsing within “weeks” if a new Cabinet was not formed. Berri, Hariri and other officials have underlined the urgency of forming a new government quickly to carry out structural economic reforms demanded by the CEDRE conference to salvage the economy. At the CEDRE conference held in Paris on April 6, donor countries and organizations pledged over $11 billion in grants and soft loans to finance investment and infrastructure projects in Lebanon. However, the money is contingent upon reforms that Lebanon has promised to undertake, but that cannot be implemented until the new government is formed. Former MP Walid Joumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, called for austerity measures to cope with the soaring public debt. “Public debt is rising every day and the remedy is by taking serious austerity measures on all levels in the state, or else the CEDRE conference will be to no avail,” Joumblatt tweeted. He warned that the delay in the Cabinet formation would increase financial burdens, which consequently, might lead to “total paralysis.” Meanwhile, Berri called Wednesday for Parliament’s secretariat to meet at his Ain al-Tineh residence Thursday to discuss the agenda of an upcoming legislative session, a statement from his media office said. Parliament’s regular sessions began in the third week of October and will last until the end of December. Last month, Berri convened Parliament for a two-day extraordinary session, during which legislators discussed and endorsed various draft laws, including projects related to the CEDRE conference.