Lebanese Cabinet on ice for now as previous grudges surface
Nazih Osseiran/The Daily Star/December 15/16
BEIRUT: The Cabinet will not be formed this week due to standing grievances between major political powers, sources told The Daily Star Wednesday but Free Patriotic Movement President Gebran Bassil expected it to be resolved before Christmas. “We expect the Cabinet’s birth before the holidays,” Bassil said in a statement. “Despite it being a transient government [the new administration will] follow up on reform and combat corruption, which should reflect on the ministers.”
Sources from the presidential palace are skeptical over formation.
“There will be no Cabinet anytime soon, the issue has become much larger than its formation, as previous grudges are surfacing,” a source from Baabda said.
During an hourlong meeting at the presidential palace Wednesday, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun discussed Cabinet’s progress. As he was leaving the palace, Hariri told reporters that the “matter still requires further consultations.”
So far, politicians have failed to agree on the lineup and the allocation of portfolios. Even the exact number of ministers included remains contentious. Hariri has previously called for a 24-member administration.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt has called for an expanded 30-member Cabinet with balanced representation for the Marada Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party. This would fortify Lebanon “amid the [region’s] moving sands” he said via Twitter Wednesday.
Source said that the issue is now beyond the number of ministers.
“It doesn’t matter anymore if it’s 24 or 30 [members]. What matters is [Speaker] Berri’s relationship with the FPM and not his relationship with [Marada Movement head MP Sleiman] Frangieh,” the source explained. “This is why the Cabinet’s formation is being hampered and Hariri is very bothered by this.”The source pointed to previous tensions between the Speaker and Aoun and cited them as the reason for delays.
“Berri and Aoun are portraying to the media as if they are the ones forming Cabinet, but that won’t happen if Frangieh only gets the Culture Ministry,” the source said.
Marada’s share in the administration is the main hurdle preventing its formation. Frangieh insists on managing one of three key portfolios – Telecommunications, Public Works or Energy – before he agrees to join the Cabinet.
Berri had attempted to give up the Public Works portfolio to Frangieh. Aoun in turn demanded that a Shiite minister be allocated as part of his team, which Berri rejected and thus created another stalemate.
The source revealed that all parties bar one remained skeptical that the Cabinet would be formed anytime soon, however he refused to reveal which group was hopeful.
Berri, during a meeting with various MPs and officials, expressed optimism. “There is no excuse for delaying the formation of the Cabinet and to issue decrees after the hurdles of portfolio allocation have been solved,” he said, adding that he and the FPM agree on the need to formulate a new parliamentary law based on proportional representation to replace the current 1960 law used in the previous elections in 2009.
FPM MP Ibrahim Kanaan also met with Jumblatt to discuss the law that would govern the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai attempted to reconcile Frangieh and Aoun Tuesday, but also failed. As Rai and Frangieh met, he called the president so the two could chat. However, Aoun snubbed Frangieh and refused to take his call, further marring attempts to reach a consensus.
MP Alain Aoun headed an FPM delegation Wednesday to visit Frangieh at his home in Bneshaai, in a move aimed at diffusing tensions between the two. The discussion also revolved around the parliamentary electoral law.
Another source close to the Cabinet formation process said that the “final touches are being put to the Cabinet lineup as efforts and contacts are now geared toward solving the substitute portfolio [for the Amal Movement].”
