Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Top Lebanese leaders Wednesday held talks focusing on a security plan ahead of the holiday season as the monthslong Cabinet formation crisis dragged on with no solution in sight.
President Michel Aoun chaired a meeting of the Higher Defense Council at Baabda Palace, attended by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, relevant ministers and high-ranking security and military officials, including Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun.
The meeting, at Aoun’s request, was held in anticipation of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, when security and military agencies customarily draw up a plan to beef up security and prevent any incidents that could threaten the country’s stability and the people’s safety during the holiday season.
Aoun and Hariri “requested the relevant military, security and administrative agencies to take the necessary measures during the holiday season to facilitate the movement of citizens, tourists and expatriates who plan to spend the holiday in Lebanon,” a statement released after the council’s meeting said.
Aoun reviewed the security incidents that occurred on Lebanese territories during the current year and instructed the concerned security agencies to coordinate their work and intensify their efforts in order to put an end to these incidents and prevent their recurrence, the statement added.
The president also brought up the issue of the spread of drugs, particularly at universities, schools and nightclubs. The relevant security forces were instructed to take necessary measures to combat this phenomenon which adversely affects the youth, students and the social conditions, the statement said.
It added that Aoun requested security apparatuses to cooperate and coordinate among themselves as part of ongoing preparations ahead of the 2019 Arab Economic and Social Development Summit set to be held in Beirut on Jan. 16-20.
Ahead of the council’s meeting, Aoun held a private meeting with Hariri, centering on the general situation in the country and the Cabinet formation process, which has entered its seventh month of deadlock.
Local media outlets said the Aoun-Hariri meeting did not yield any positive results with regard to the Cabinet formation, which has been stalled since last month by a last-minute hitch over a demand by six pro-Hezbollah Sunni MPs for representation in the new government.
“Aoun and Hariri assessed the ideas and proposals currently being mooted, including those of [caretaker Foreign] Minister Gebran Bassil, to untangle the Sunni knot,” a political source familiar with the formation process told The Daily Star. Among the “three practical ideas” Bassil presented to Speaker Nabih Berri Tuesday to break the Cabinet impasse, the source said one proposal called for a tradeoff between the Christian minister, part of Aoun’s share, and the Sunni minister, part of Hariri’s share, to allow for the representation of one of the Sunni six MPs from the Future Movement’s share. The second proposal called for increasing the new Cabinet from 30 to 32 members with the aim of representing one of the six MPs not affiliated with the Future Movement, the source said.
“However, the two proposals have failed to gain the support of Hariri, who had from the beginning rejected the idea of a 32-member Cabinet,” the source added.
The source said there were no details about the third proposal, which was deliberately shrouded in secrecy by both Berri and Bassil “in order not to let it unravel” by the feuding parties. Another political source said Bassil’s third proposal calls for representing the six MPs from Aoun’s share.
In fact, MP Jihad al-Samad, one of the six MPs, hinted at this option when he told reporters at Berri’s Ain al-Tineh residence: “The Cabinet could be formed today if Bassil dropped his demand for 11 ministers [the Free Patriotic Movement’s and Aoun’s share combined] and accepted 10 ministers to allow for naming one of the six MPs as a minister in the Cabinet.”
MP Walid Sukkarieh, one of the six MPs and also a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, reiterated their demand to be represented in the next government by one of them.
“We stand firm on our position and insist that one of us be represented in the government. Regardless of the proposals being made, we will only accept that one of us be named as a minister,” Sukkarieh said.
Berri spoke of new attempts and mechanisms to break the formation deadlock. Speaking during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence, Berri again underscored the need for the quick formation of a new Cabinet, saying Lebanon can no longer operate without a government.
“There are new attempts and mechanisms to resolve this issue [the Sunni MPs’ representation], which we hope they lead to the desired results, especially everyone realizes that the Cabinet formation is inevitable to cope with all the problems, namely the economic and social situation,” Berri was quoted as saying.
The speaker urged all the parties to shoulder their responsibilities and work for the formation of “an all-embracing national unity government that includes everyone.”
Berri later chaired the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Development and Liberation bloc, which called in a statement on all the parties to ensure “all the potentials to overcome the Cabinet formation crisis.”
After meeting Berri, Bassil, the FPM leader, is expected to meet with Hariri and the six MPs to discuss with them his new proposals to break the impasse.
But Future Movement MP Assem Araji said Hariri stood firm on his refusal to name one of the six MPs as a minister in the new Cabinet, either from the Future share or others’ shares because they did not form a unified political bloc.
“Prime Minister Hariri’s stance remains unchanged. The Cabinet lineup is ready and it only needs the names of three Hezbollah ministers to be announced,” Araji told The Daily Star. “If Hezbollah provides the names of its ministers today, the Cabinet lineup will be announced tomorrow.”
Hezbollah, which strongly backs the six MPs’ representation, has refused to hand the names of its ministers to Hariri. It has linked its participation in the new Cabinet to the six MPs’ representation.
Araji said Hariri has so far refused to meet with the six MPs “because such a meeting would not help resolve the problem.”
But MP Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said a solution for the six MPs’ representation problem is through Hariri’s talks with them. “Hezbollah is not a party to the Cabinet formation crisis and it was not the one that invented this crisis at all.
“The solution is through [Hariri’s] dialogue with the six Sunni MPs,” Raad told a memorial ceremony in the southern town of Ghazieh.
“The six Sunni MPs, who supported the resistance [Hezbollah] in the most difficult situation, have the right to be represented in the government.”