Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is set to meet with top leaders Monday at the start of consultations with various political parties before deciding on whether to run for the premiership.
Hariri has linked his candidacy for the premiership to the rival factions’ commitment to a French reform plan aimed at pulling the crises-ridden country out of its worst economic and financial crunch since the 1975-90 Civil War.
Hariri Sunday spoke by telephone separately with President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and it was agreed he would meet them Monday. Hariri is set to meet Aoun at Baabda Palace at 11 a.m. before meeting later in the afternoon with Berri at his Ain al-Tineh residence.
Hariri’s flurry of activity comes three days after he announced he was a “natural candidate” to head the next government. This was a reversal of Hariri’s position when he declared last week that he will not be the next prime minister and will not nominate any candidate for the premiership.
Hariri has a few days to decide on whether he will eventually run for the premiership after Aoun has set Thursday, Oct. 15, as the date for binding consultations with parliamentary blocs to designate a new prime minister.
The one-day consultations will take place more than two months after caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned over the deadly explosion that devastated Beirut Port in August, and 19 days after Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib stepped down, saying he was unable to break the stalemate over the shape and makeup of the new government.
Adib, backed by France and a large parliamentary majority, stepped down on Sept. 26 after his attempts to form a small 14-member Cabinet of nonpartisan experts to deliver reforms foundered over who controls the Finance Ministry and differences over a rotation of the sectarian leadership of the other three sovereign ministries: Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs.
A political source Sunday said Hariri’s candidacy for the country’s top Sunni post has gained the support of France, which has emerged as the main power broker in Lebanon since the Beirut blast, as well as regional powers that wield great influence in the country. This is a clear reference to rival regional heavyweights, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“The coming week promises to be decisive with regard to the Cabinet crisis. The country will either head to a major political breakthrough if a consensus is reached on Hariri’s designation as prime minister, or the Lebanese will face an open-ended crisis that will further deepen political divisions in the absence of an agreement on a single candidate for the premiership,” the source familiar with the Cabinet formation process told The Daily Star.
“Hariri, who has endorsed the French initiative as the last opportunity to rescue Lebanon, is seeking to rally support from all the parties for the initiative before taking a final decision on the premiership bid,” the source said.
In a nearly three-hour interview with MTV Thursday night, Hariri clearly linked his nomination for the premiership to the rival factions’ commitment to the French initiative to save Lebanon from a series of multiple crises. He said he was ready to form a new government made up of specialists with a six-month mission to deal with two major issues: Halt the economic collapse and rebuild Beirut following the Aug. 4 port blast that also damaged half of the capital, killed at least 192 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people homeless and caused losses worth billions of dollars.
“I am the natural candidate for prime minister,” Hariri said, adding that he would consult divided political parties to see whether they would agree to implement France-backed reforms, which he sees as the "only and fastest way to rebuild Beirut” and halt the country’s economic collapse.
Although Adib’s resignation dealt a setback to the French initiative, Hariri emphasized that the initiative was still alive.
Hariri was expected to meet Sunday night with three other former premiers Najib Mikati, Fouad Siniora and Tammam Salam ahead of his consultations with Aoun, Berri and other parties on his premiership bid.
During the MTV interview, Hariri said he did not approve Mikati’s proposal for the formation of a techno-political Cabinet as a means to end the standoff. The proposal called for forming a 20-member Cabinet comprising 14 independent specialists and six politicians to serve as state ministers, representing the country’s six major sects. “This proposal is unacceptable,” Hariri said.
Mikati’s proposal runs counter to the French initiative, which reportedly called for the formation of a small Cabinet of nonpartisan experts to deliver reforms. The initiative, which had been endorsed by all Lebanese rival factions, aims to put Lebanon on a path of reforms that would eventually lead to unlocking urgent financial aid vital to shoring up the crumbling economy, saddled with a soaring public debt of over $90 billion.
Although the country’s major blocs have said they will meet next week to decide on Hariri’s candidacy for the premiership, the head of the Future Movement reiterated his previous position that he will not form a government with the participation of the Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Gebran Bassil. Hariri’s ties with the FPM have been strained since last year over policy differences, particularly over the waste, estimated at billions of dollars, in the ailing electricity sector. Ministers affiliated with the FPM have held the Energy Ministry for more than 10 years, while the country is still suffering from chronic power cuts.
Hariri last year bowed out of the premiership race after the two main Christian parties, the FPM and the Lebanese Forces, in addition to the Progressive Socialist Party, had announced that they would not support him to head the new government. This led to Diab’s designation last December to form a new government.
In what appeared to be a response to Hariri’s new stance on the premiership bid, the FPM’s Political Committee called for the formation of a productive government to enact reforms.
“The [FPM’s] Political Committee considers that the absolute priority is still the implementation of the reform program mentioned in the French initiative. For this, it sees that priority is in forming a reformist government, whose head and ministers are productive and effective,” the committee said in a statement issued after a virtual meeting chaired by Bassil Saturday. “Any other words is a departure from the French initiative and the one who says such words must bear responsibility for wasting the initiative and the opportunity in search of other solutions which do not seem to be ripe.”
Taking an indirect swipe at Hariri for saying he will not form a government with Bassil in it, the statement said: “This is merely a repetition of a full year of positions under the slogan of ‘me or no one else,’ while what is required is the adoption of clear, equal and fair criteria for the government formation. These criteria must be based on efficiency and capability, along with ensuring political support for the government by granting it parliamentary and popular confidence.”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
