Barring last-minute snags, a new Cabinet of specialists could be formed later this week as major progress has been made in overcoming hurdles regarding the size and shape of the government, as well as the distribution of key ministerial posts, political sources said Wednesday.
“The prevailing optimism in the political landscape, coupled with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s behind-the-scenes contacts with various parties that have yielded positive results, is raising hopes for a new government to be formed as early as Saturday,” a political source familiar with the Cabinet formation process told The Daily Star.
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri met Wednesday with President Michel Aoun for the fourth time in five days, in a move reflecting the premier-designate’s resolve to speed up the formation of a new government made up of experts. Hariri did not speak to reporters after the 45-minute meeting with Aoun at Baabda Palace.
The two leaders “discussed the progress being made in the Cabinet formation process,” a source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star. Amid the prevailing optimism, the source said he expected a new 20-member Cabinet to be formed by Hariri later this week.
The optimism about the Cabinet formation was also echoed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri: “The next government may see the light of day within four or five days if the current positive atmosphere persisted,” Berri said during a meeting at his Ain al-Tineh residence with a student delegation from Universite St. Joseph, according to a statement released by his media office.
Speaking about the future of Lebanon, Berri said the country could not go on with leaders viewing matters from a sectarian or confessional perspective. “It is time for the Lebanese to belong to their homeland before belonging to their sect,” he said, describing sects as a “grace” and sectarianism as a “curse.”
“I am optimistic about the future of Lebanon because it is rich with its humanitarian energies and possesses a huge wealth of oil resources in its waters,” Berri said, adding: “What matters is that we must not feel desperate and begin the rescue process through fighting corruption and implementing 54 reform laws that had been approved by Parliament.”
In their previous meetings, Aoun and Hariri had resolved the dispute over the size of the next Cabinet, which now will be made up of 18 or 20 specialists who do not belong to political parties, the same source said.
The issue of rotating the sectarian leadership of the three remaining so-called “sovereign ministries” – Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs –is on its way to being resolved, the source said.
According to the source, the Interior Ministry, traditionally held by a Sunni belonging to Hariri’s Future Movement, would now be assigned to a Maronite Christian, who is loyal to Aoun or the Free Patriotic Movement headed by MP Gebran Bassil.
In return for ceding the Interior Ministry, the Sunni sect will be allotted the Foreign Ministry now controlled by a Maronite, the source said.
The issue of the Finance Ministry, one of the four sovereign ministries, had been settled after Hariri earlier said he agreed to assigning it to the Shiite sect only for one time – a key demand of the two main Shiite groups, the Amal Movement and Hezbollah.
“Now, the premier-designate’s efforts are focused on the distribution of the other coveted ministerial posts among the various blocs,” the source said, adding that the Defense portfolio, usually held by a Greek Orthodox, would go to the same sect.
The source added that Hariri would cooperate with Aoun to resolve the problem of Christian representation, a thorny issue that hindered the Cabinet formation in the past.
As the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party have opted to stay out of the next government, key and lower-ranking ministerial portfolios allotted to the Christian sect would be divided among the president’s share, the FPM and the Marada Movement headed by Sleiman Frangieh.
In the parties’ traditional jockeying for key ministries, the Progressive Socialist Party headed by Walid Joumblatt is seeking to acquire the Health Ministry, currently held by a minister affiliated with Hezbollah, or a sovereign ministry.
Hezbollah, which has offered to give up the Health Ministry, would likely get either the Education Ministry or the Public Works Ministry.
Under the rotation, the FPM’s Strong Lebanon bloc, the largest Christian bloc in Parliament, was expected to lose control of the Energy Ministry, which has been held by FPM ministers for more than 10 years.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian called on rival factions to sincerely cooperate with Hariri to facilitate his mission in forming a new government to rescue Lebanon from the “collapse at all levels.”
“More than a year has passed on the economic collapse that threatened the lives of the Lebanese ... Therefore, the current efforts by Prime Minister Saad Hariri to form a rescue government that is capable of effective is a chance that everyone must seize in order to pull the country out of its crises and then focus attention on the plight the city of Beirut struck by the port explosion,” Derian said in an address to the Lebanese on the eve of Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, which falls Thursday. “A constructive and sincere cooperation with the premier-designate will facilitate his mission in forming a rescue government to save us from the collapse at all levels,” he added.
Hezbollah also called for the quick formation of a new government capable of enacting reforms and fulfilling the aspirations of the Lebanese people.
“Locally, the current challenge lies in the success of the prime minister-designate in forming a government capable of carrying out the reforms agreed upon and improving the living, economic, financial and monetary situation in the country and rebuilding what was damaged by the Beirut Port explosion,” said a statement issued after the weekly meeting of Hezbollah’s parliamentary Loyalty to the Resistance bloc.
“The worsening living burdens and the citizens’ multilateral health, food and public services’ complaints underline the need for a government that will quickly respond to the demands and aspirations of the Lebanese,” the statement added.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
