Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Monday that he will work “day and night” to make the government productive, and that whoever plans to stand in his way should move aside.
"After a nine-month delay, the priority will be for the Lebanese citizen," the premier said, referring to the time that elapsed between May’s parliamentary elections and the government’s formation Thursday evening.
Hariri’s comments, which were carried by local media, came during a ceremony held at the Grand Serail to honor employees who had been referred to retirement.
“We still have not begun with the Cabinet [work], and political conflicts have begun,” Hariri said.
He appears to have been referring to comments made Sunday by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt.
Speaking with reporters, Joumblatt accused Hariri of having abandoned the 1989 Taif Accord, which ended the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90), and abdicated his responsibilities as the premier-designate during the formation process.
The Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, Joumblatt said, has “discussed the way the government was formed, where we, unfortunately, noticed a unilateral decision on the formation and the semi-absence of an essential position in the Taif Accord, that is, the premiership.”
“We ask Saad Hariri, where is the Taif [Accord] that had been built by your father and for which he fell as a martyr? I want to know, where is the Taif [Accord] and where is the country heading for?” Joumblatt added.
The PSP leader also accused Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil of interfering in the Cabinet formation and drafting the broad lines of the policy statement in a violation of stipulations laid out in Taif.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
