Date: Jan 30, 2019 Source: The Daily Star ‘Cautiously optimistic’ Hariri makes eleventh-hour bid Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is making an eleventh-hour attempt to break the monthslong Cabinet gridlock before announcing his final decision this week, amid growing foreign calls for the quick formation of a government to enact a string of economic and fiscal reforms. Hariri, who has been tight-lipped on the outcome of his talks, Tuesday said he was “cautiously optimistic” that a new government would be formed soon. Speaking to reporters after chairing part of the weekly meeting of the Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc at his Downtown residence, Hariri said a final decision on the deadlock, now in its ninth month, would be made later this week. “Hopefully things are positive and will become clear in the next couple of days,” the premier-designate said. He reiterated that this week would be “decisive, whether positively or negatively,” refusing to talk about his options. Hariri met Tuesday night with caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. It was the fourth such meeting in as many days and a bid to resolve two remaining hurdles that have stymied the Cabinet formation: a redistribution of some ministerial portfolios, and representing six Hezbollah-backed Sunni MPs from outside the Future Movement. Although the meeting was held behind the scenes and away from media coverage, local TV channels reported that Hariri and Bassil had agreed on naming Othman Majzoub, a political adviser to Tripoli MP Faisal Karami, one of the six Sunni lawmakers, as a representative of the group, known as the Consultative Gathering, in the new Cabinet. While Majzoub would be part of President Michel Aoun’s ministerial share, he would exclusively represent the Consultative Gathering, thus fulfilling the six MPs’ demand. The MPs met with senior Hezbollah officials Tuesday night, political sources said, in a move that appeared to have as its goal the facilitation of Cabinet formation. During his “short family visit” to Paris last week, Hariri met with Bassil three times and once with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea after having held talks in Beirut with Speaker Nabih Berri and former MP Walid Joumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, as part of his intensified flurry of consultations with top leaders over the impasse. Those talks focused on a swap of some ministerial portfolios, as well as resolving the problem of the six Sunni MPs’ representation. Hariri, who was designated on May 24 to form a national unity government in which all the main political parties are represented, has apparently been left with three main options for moving forward: Forming a new government, reactivating the caretaker Cabinet or stepping aside. The Central News Agency said visitors to Baabda Palace quoted the president as saying, “I want a government before the end of this month.” Sources close to Bassil are optimistic about the “imminent birth” of the new government in the deadlock’s ninth month, the agency reported. Berri described a further delay in the Cabinet formation as “shameful” and “a real farce.” “Contacts are ongoing, aimed at deciding the fate of the government this week,” Berri told visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence. He said talks with the Consultative Gathering were continuing in order to find an appropriate formula for representing the group. Appearing to take an indirect jab at Bassil, who was reported to be seeking veto power by obtaining 11 ministers in a 30-member Cabinet with the combined shares of the Free Patriotic Movement and Aoun, Berri said: “It is difficult for any party alone to acquire a blocking third [veto power] in the government.” He stressed that Hariri had no choice but to form a new government, ruling out the possibility of the premier-designate stepping down. “I am still supporting Hariri for the premiership. So is [Hezbollah leader] brother Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, who sent positive signals toward him during his last TV interview,” Berri said. The speaker said he was determined to hold a parliamentary legislative session soon, regardless of whether the government was formed this week or not, “because there are urgent financial issues that need to be approved immediately and cannot wait more.” The Future bloc also described this week as “decisive” for breaking the Cabinet formation impasse. It said it supported Hariri’s decision to end “futile” debate on Cabinet shares and powers. “Prime Minister Hariri briefed the bloc on ongoing consultations to form the government and the results of his latest discussions with the concerned leaders,” a statement issued after the bloc’s weekly meeting said. Expressing its satisfaction with the efforts exerted by Hariri and his insistence on stopping the government disruptions, the statement said: “The bloc also commends the fact that the current week is the final decisive week for moving to a new phase that would be crowned with the issuance of the [Cabinet] formation decrees and the launching of governmental work that the Lebanese aspire for after eight months of vicious cycles.” The bloc added that Hariri had shouldered his political and constitutional responsibility and had done what he had to do to reach a formula that takes into account the requirements of national accord and ensure the components of work to face the economic, financial and political challenges. “But a series of conditions and positions known to the Lebanese public prevented the formation of the government in a timely manner and put the country at the risk of a prolonged governmental vacuum,” the statement said. Hariri, according to the statement, “believes that the continuation of the present situation is a declaration of the failure of the political system to find solutions and its inability to meet Lebanon’s obligations and commitment made at international conferences,” the statement said. “This is a direct or indirect call to make the premiership’s position vulnerable to paralysis, disruption and daily exhaustion. This called for a decision to break the wall of crisis and the announcement by the prime minister-designate last week that this week is the last chance to be decisive and begin forming the government.” Meanwhile, the FPM’s parliamentary Strong Lebanon bloc warned it would take a different stance if a new government was not formed this week. “We are all hopeful that the government will see the light of day this week. All the work [on Cabinet formation] has been done within the initiative of FPM leader and caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil that adopted clear ideas and respected the criteria of true representation,” caretaker Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil said after the bloc’s weekly meeting chaired by Bassil. “But if the government does not see the light of day this week after all this work, we will have a different talk and a different stance next week because it will then mean that there is an intention to disrupt the formation,” he added.