Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is set to meet President Michel Aoun soon to present him with a draft Cabinet lineup amid enduring differences over the naming of Christian ministers, an issue that raised fears of the lineup being rejected by Aoun, political sources said Tuesday.
The weekslong Cabinet impasse comes as France and the United Nations would host a new conference Wednesday about providing humanitarian aid to Lebanon following the Aug. 4 deadly explosion that devastated Beirut Port and destroyed large areas of the capital.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will co-preside over the video conference, which will also include Lebanese nongovernmental groups and other organizations seeking to help. The meeting will aim to have the highest-level representation possible with the objective of soliciting aid for Lebanon's debt-crushed economy.
Aoun will address the video conference dealing with the current economic situation and the difficulties facing the Lebanese, especially following the port blast and the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, the state-run National News Agency reported.
“The Cabinet formation process is in a state of confusion as most factions declare that they have not been consulted on their shares in the next Cabinet and as the premier-designate prepares to submit a draft Cabinet formula to the president in hopes of ending the weekslong gridlock,” a political source familiar with the matter told The Daily Star.
The source said that when Hariri visits Baabda Palace, “he will definitely carry with him a draft Cabinet lineup,” his first since he was designated to form a new government on Oct. 22.
“But lingering differences between Aoun and Hariri over naming the Christian ministers is posing a major hindrance to the Cabinet formation,” the source said.
A Baabda Palace source said Tuesday no date has yet been set for a meeting between Aoun and Hariri to discuss the Cabinet crisis.
During their last meeting at Baabda Palace last month, Hariri came with an incomplete Cabinet list, naming by himself seven Christian ministers and left the president with the remaining two Christian ministers to name for the Interior and Defense portfolios, the same political source said. “But President Aoun rejected the proposal,” the source said.
The source added that in addition to naming seven Christian ministers, Hariri also wants to have a say in the naming of a candidate to the Interior Ministry, usually assigned to a Sunni figure affiliated with Hariri’s Future Movement, but now will go to a Maronite figure under the proposed rotation of the sectarian leadership of the four so-called “sovereign ministries” --- Defense, Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs. In return for ceding the Interior Ministry, the Sunni sect will be allotted the Foreign Ministry.
Hariri has broken the rotation principle when he said earlier he agreed to assign the Finance Ministry to the Shiite sect only for one time – a key demand of the two main Shiite groups, the Amal Movement and Hezbollah.
Aoun and Hariri have not met for more than two weeks, bringing the Cabinet formation process to complete paralysis. They are still at odds over the naming of nine Christian ministers in Hariri’s proposed 18-member Cabinet of nonpartisan specialists to deliver urgent reforms and the adoption of unified criteria in the formation process.
Hariri’s reported insistence on picking and naming all the ministers has posed a major bone of contention with Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement’s 24-member Strong Lebanon bloc, the biggest bloc in Parliament with the largest Christian representation.
Aoun and major parliamentary blocs reject the notion that Hariri would pick all Cabinet ministers, and they insist on naming their nominees for ministerial posts.
The presentation of Hariri’s proposed Cabinet lineup comes amid wide expectations that Aoun will reject it because most Christian ministers are named by the premier-designate.
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt said in an interview with An-Nahar newspaper Tuesday that there had been no contacts between him and Hariri over the Druze share in the next government. “It seems they are working to create a Druze problem which does not exist,” he said.
Joumblatt, whose PSP bloc had nominated Hariri for the premiership, warned that a further delay in the Cabinet formation would aggravate the severe economic crisis, the worst since the 1975-90 Civil War.
Similarly, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said in an interview with Al-Manar TV last week that there had been no contacts between the party and Hariri over the naming of Shiite ministers in the new Cabinet.
A senior Future source Tuesday denied reports that Hariri was not consulting with Aoun on the proposed Cabinet lineup.
“Prime Minister Hariri has been consulting with President Aoun on the Cabinet makeup before presenting his lineup,” the source told The Daily Star.
“Prime Minister Hariri is seeking to form a mission government made up of nonpartisan specialists to gain the international community’s confidence and implement the required reforms outlined in the French initiative with the aim of attracting foreign financial aid to Lebanon,” the source said.
Implementation of long-overdue reforms is deemed crucial to unlocking promised international aid to the cash-strapped country which is teetering on the verge of a total economic collapse.
Future Movement MP Mohammad Hajjar told The Daily Star Monday that Aoun’s approval of Hariri’s draft Cabinet lineup would help put the country on the track of salvation. “The Cabinet lineup will be based on one criterion, which is adherence to the French initiative in order not to miss the chance to put the country on the track of salvation,” Hajjar said.
The Cabinet deadlock comes as Lebanon is wrestling with multiple crises, including an economic meltdown, an alarming spike in coronavirus infections and the grave consequences of the port blast that killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people homeless and caused losses worth billions of dollars.
Lebanon has remained without a fully functioning government since caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab submitted his Cabinet’s resignation on Aug. 10 in the aftermath of the port explosion.
On the eve of the aid conference for Lebanon hosted by France and the United Nations, Aoun Tuesday affirmed his support for a forensic audit of the Central Bank’s accounts, saying that it would ensure Lebanon’s credibility in the eyes of the international community and donor countries.
Aoun was briefed on a “framework of reform, recovery and reconstruction,” put together by EU Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf, Deputy Special Coordinator of the UN to Lebanon Najat Roshdie and World Bank Regional Director Saroj Kumar Jha.
The framework estimated the cost of Lebanon’s path to reform, recovery and reconstruction at $2.5 billion, a statement from the presidency said.
The statement said that Aoun had expressed his support for the strategic objectives included in the framework, as well as a forensic audit which would lay out “every dollar spent in Lebanon” and gain credibility in the eyes of the international community, “especially the donor countries.”
The forensic audit is a precondition for any type of foreign financial assistance, which Lebanon desperately needs. It is also a key demand of the International Monetary Fund with which Lebanon is negotiating for a $10 billion bailout package.
Alvarez & Marsal, the consulting company that was tasked with conducting the Central Bank’s audit, pulled out of the contract last week citing noncooperation by the bank in providing the necessary documents.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
