Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Wednesday struck an upbeat note about forming a new Cabinet soon to enact reforms and halt Lebanon’s economic collapse.
Hariri spoke to reporters at Baabda Palace after meeting with President Michel Aoun to present him with his first draft Cabinet lineup since he was designated to form a new government on Oct. 22.
“I presented to the president a complete Cabinet lineup of 18 ministers based on specialization, competence and without partisan affiliation. He promised me to study the [proposed] lineup and we will return to meet again. The atmosphere is positive,” Hariri said.
“I have high hopes that we will be able to form a government quickly to halt the economic collapse and the suffering of the Lebanese, rebuild Beirut [following the port explosion] and restore confidence and hope to the Lebanese by enacting the reforms agreed upon within the French initiative,” he added.
During the meeting with Hariri, Aoun presented the premier-designate with “a complete proposal for the suggested Cabinet lineup,” the presidency said in a statement.
A source familiar with the Aoun-Hariri talks told The Daily Star: “Hariri presented a complete lineup containing names [of ministers] for all portfolios and sects. President Aoun promised to study it and give the answer to it.”
Hariri arrived at Baabda Palace carrying two envelopes, one containing the Cabinet lineup and the other the CVs of the potential ministers.
Wednesday’s was the second meeting this week between Aoun and Hariri following a three-week standstill in the Cabinet formation process.
However, it was not immediately known whether Aoun and Hariri managed to narrow differences over the naming of nine Christian ministers in the proposed 18-member Cabinet, a major bone of contention between the two leaders that had delayed the formation.
Backed by France and regional powers, Hariri is scrambling to form an 18-member Cabinet of nonpartisan experts to deliver urgent reforms ahead of a new visit to Lebanon by French President Emmanuel Macron later this month, a political source said Tuesday.
Macron is scheduled to visit Beirut on Dec. 21-23, marking his third trip to the crises-stricken country since the massive Aug. 4 blast that devastated Beirut’s port and left large areas of the capital in ruins, in the biggest explosion in Lebanon’s history. Macron was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut two days after the port disaster.
In addition to inspecting French troops serving with the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, Macron was expected to meet again with Lebanon’s rival political leaders to press them to agree on the swift formation of a “mission” government to enact reforms needed to unlock foreign financial aid that would help revive the collapsing economy, saddled with a soaring public debt of over $90 billion.
The formation of a “mission” government made up of nonpartisan experts to implement structural reforms is stipulated in the French initiative that Macron presented to Lebanese political leaders during his second visit to Beirut on Sept. 1. Implementation of long-overdue reforms is deemed essential to releasing billions of dollars in promised international aid to the cash-strapped country, which is facing an economic meltdown and a collapsing currency that has lost more than 80 percent of its value since last year and led to soaring inflation.
However, the French initiative, designed to lift Lebanon out of its worst economic and financial crisis since the 1975-90 Civil War, has stumbled as political rivals haggle over shares in the new government.
The Cabinet formation efforts have been bogged down by differences over the naming of Christian ministers in the next government, and Aoun’s demand, backed by the Free Patriotic Movement headed by MP Gebran Bassil, for the adoption of unified criteria in the process. Hariri’s attempts to form a new Cabinet have also been stalled by the rival parties’ horse-trading for key ministerial posts.
Lebanon has been without a government since Aug. 10 when then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government resigned in the aftermath of the port explosion, although it stayed on in a caretaker capacity.
A political source said the intensified efforts to form a new Cabinet came as a result of mounting French pressure on Lebanese leaders to quickly form a new government to deliver reforms. Egypt and the European Union have also called for a new Lebanese government to carry out reforms.
The EU Council urged Lebanese political forces to support the “urgent formation of a mission government that enjoys credibility, is subject to accountability in Lebanon and is capable of implementing the essential reforms,” according to a statement released Tuesday by the EU mission in Beirut.
The statement stressed that the EU’s assistance to the rebuilding of “a democratic, transparent, comprehensive and prosperous Lebanon remains contingent on noticeable progress in the essential reforms.”
Meanwhile, in a negative development that could cast gloom over the Cabinet formation efforts, tensions suddenly rose between Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri after the president urged judges to examine corruption charges leveled against government officials.
During a meeting with members of the Higher Judicial Council headed by Judge Suheil Abboud at Baabda Palace Tuesday, Aoun stressed the need for “reactivating the judiciary’s work and to quickly consider the outstanding cases before courts.” He also called on the “judicial body not to be influenced by political and media campaigns that target some judges.”
His comments came after LBCI channel has been broadcasting daily reports in the past few weeks on alleged corruption and waste of public funds at various ministries and state institutions. In some of these reports, the TV named some officials and former ministers belonging to various political parties.
Aoun’s remarks drew a fiery response from the NBN channel, which accused the president of obstructing the latest batch of judicial appointments and stalling over the formation of a new Cabinet. NBN is affiliated with the Amal Movement and its head, Berri.
Referring to a new batch of judicial appointments proposed in June by the Higher Judicial Council and which Aoun had refused to endorse, NBN said in its news bulletin Tuesday night: “We ask, your excellency the president, who was the first to target the judiciary? Who obstructed the judicial appointments? What are the hidden reasons for this obstruction and in whose interest?”
“Who is stopping the [judicial] appointments which constitute the oxygen, not only for the judicial life, but for national life. Then you say to the judiciary, which is suffocating, that its role is essential in fighting corruption and effecting right and justice. Your step in sending back the [judicial] appointments [to the Higher Judicial Council] did not surprise anyone at the time because it was expected,” the TV added.
NBN went further by implicitly accusing Aoun of procrastinating in the Cabinet formation to “achieve narrow gains as if the people can still be patient, as if the state can still endure further adventures ... and as if the nation is a family shareholding company.”
Berri’s ties with Aoun have gone through ups and down since Aoun’s election as president in 2016. Berri did not vote for Aoun’s election.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
