Joseph Haboush| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri remained firm Thursday in his opposition to Cabinet demands by pro-Hezbollah MPs as he faced blistering attacks from a former Syria-backed minister.
“I will not change my position, and these words do not have the aim of challenging anyone; rather, it is my absolute belief that political shouting does not lead anywhere,” Hariri said during a joint meeting of his Future Movement and its parliamentary bloc.
“Nor does it solve the electricity or water problem or the everyday needs of citizens,” he added.
“What is currently being proposed has nothing to do with compromise or the interest of the country or the Lebanese people,” Hariri said. “Compromises are reached when it is in the interest of the country, and I was at the forefront of trying to [do so].”
Hariri was referring to the demand from six Sunni MPs, backed by Hezbollah along with Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal Movement, to be granted a ministry in the upcoming government.
The six MPs Thursday escalated their stance again, saying they now insisted on choosing which portfolio they would take.
“[We] have withdrawn our concession of not demanding a specific portfolio … so we insist that a portfolio is chosen in coordination with us,” MP Faisal Karami said in an adversarial televised speech.
The Cabinet formation process, which has entered its seventh month of deadlock, was once more stalled last month by the MPs’ demand.
The six lawmakers have requested to sit down with Hariri in a bid to reach a resolution, but Hariri has refused to meet them.
“[MP] Abdel-Rahim Mrad has requested the meeting [with Hariri] not once, but twice,” Karami said.
The Tripoli MP said the lawmakers’ dispute is not with “Saad Hariri, head of Future Movement, but with Saad Hariri, the premier-designate,” adding that the meeting should not take place in Hariri’s Downtown residence, but rather in the Grand Serail.
Karami said the lawmakers insist on their demand to meet with Hariri, despite confirmation of his refusal.
“We leave it to [Hariri] to set the time and place,” he said.
Hariri has persisted in rejecting the six MPs’ demand on the grounds that they do not belong to a parliamentary bloc.
Hezbollah has supported the lawmakers by withholding the names of its ministers for the new Cabinet until Hariri acquiesces.
Political sources confirmed that there was “nothing new” regarding government formation.“Political parties are awaiting [Gebran] Bassil’s return to follow-up on the proposals to end the impasse,” one political source told The Daily Star.
The Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil presented possible solutions to Speaker Berri Tuesday.
One of the reported proposals called for increasing the new Cabinet from 30 to 32 ministers, with the aim of including an Alawite minister named by MP Najib Mikati.
Hariri previously said that he had agreed on one of the six Sunni ministers with Mikati. Political sources said that Hariri rejected the proposal.
Another idea that was shot down was a trade-off between a Christian minister, part of President Michel Aoun’s share, and a Sunni minister, part of Hariri’s share, to allow for the representation of one of the six from the Future Movement’s share.
The sources said that a separate proposal to allow for Berri to give up a Shiite minister to Hariri in return for a Sunni minister to be granted to one of the six non-Future Sunni MPs was rejected by Berri.
A political source said Bassil’s return from a trip to Serbia would get the wheels moving once again.
Meanwhile, supporters of Hariri were outraged by a continuation of derogatory comments made by pro-Syrian former minister Wiam Wahhab against him and his slain father, statesman Rafik Hariri.
Despite multiple statements calling for calm, a number of Future supporters burned tires and cut off roads in Chouf’s Naameh near the Druze politician’s hometown of Jahilieh.
Internal Security Forces head Maj. Gen. Imad Othman warned shortly after that the agency will take action against those who, in exercising their freedom of expression, cause political and sectarian strife including by jailing them.
“The ISF has the ability to control the security, but hasn’t done that in order to preserve freedom of expression,” Othman said during the opening of the Anti-Cybercrime Forum at the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut.
“It is not acceptable to slander some state figures or martyrs, because this will lead to strife and we won’t allow that to happen. Prison will be the fate of anyone who violates the law.”
Earlier in the week, Hariri supporters blocked two main coastal highways near Jiyyeh in a protest over Wahhab’s comments. Wahhab had insulted the premier-designate on a talk show when discussing the government formation, suggesting that Hariri was not qualified to be premier.
The Future Movement issued a statement Thursday reiterating that it had played no role in the protest. “The Future Movement … doesn’t need to resort to the streets nor does it need to block roads to express its political position,” the statement said.
In another video that was circulated on social media Wednesday evening, Wahhab again appeared to blast Hariri, as well as his late father, without naming them. His media office subsequently released a statement apologizing for what he had said.
“The video included personal insults that we cannot but apologize for because they came during a moment of anger and in response to harsh cursing,” the statement said, adding that the video was a few days old and had been leaked.
The state-run National News Agency reported that a group of lawyers Thursday requested that the State Prosecution look into the remarks Wahhab made in the video, on charges of inciting strife and upsetting civil peace.