Hussein Dakroub – The Daily Star
Iran, reeling under the brunt of the latest U.S. tough sanctions, is holding Lebanon hostage over the formation of a new government, Future Movement officials said Sunday, in another sign of a prolonged Cabinet crisis. The alleged Iranian role comes as the Cabinet formation process enters its seventh month of deadlock with no solution in sight.
The three main parties concerned with the final stumbling block Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, Hezbollah and a group of six Hezbollah-backed Sunni MPs have refused to budge on their positions on the issue of representing the six MPs in the new government.
A demand for representation by the six Sunni MPs not affiliated with the Future Movement had emerged as the last obstacle as Hariri was preparing to announce a 30-member Cabinet lineup late last month.
MP Mohammad Hajjar from the Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc accused Hezbollah of blocking the Cabinet formation through its insistence that the six MPs be represented in the next government.
“Hezbollah is the only party obstructing the Cabinet formation through its insistence that one of the six MPs be named a minister. Hezbollah’s stance infringes on the prime minister-designate’s prerogatives,” Hajjar told The Daily Star.
He argued that Iran was using Hezbollah to hinder the Cabinet formation in response to U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“The Cabinet impasse will drag on as long as Iran has not allowed Hezbollah to let the government be formed. Lebanon will remain hostage [over the Cabinet formation] to the Iranian leadership which is facing U.S. sanctions,” Hajjar said.
Hezbollah has refused to give the names of its three ministers to Hariri, thus holding up the government formation. The Iranian-backed Shiite party has linked its participation in the Cabinet to the six MPs’ representation.
Despite the bleak political outlook, Hariri sounded optimistic about overcoming the Cabinet formation crisis, while stressing that the Constitution brings feuding parties together.
“As for the problems disrupting the formation of the government, I will not discuss them now, in the hope that we find a solution with time among the clouds hovering over Lebanon. I am sure that we will eventually reach a solution, and we have to reach a solution,” Hariri said.
“Everyone should know that the Lebanese Constitution is what brings us together. There are issues that we differ on, thus we should focus on what brings us together. This is what I have been doing,” he added.
Hariri was addressing a delegation from diving clubs who presented to him the “message of independence” entitled this year “A homeland without addiction on land, in sea and air,” during a celebration held at his Beirut Downtown residence in the presence of several associations and clubs. “There are ups and downs and challenges. But we are all Lebanese and, just as you are working to fight drugs and other issues, we should all fight for the sake of our country,” the premier-designate said.
After their request to meet with Hariri last week was snubbed, the six MPs will meet this week to decide their next move, the Central News Agency reported. But Hajjar was skeptical about the outcome of any possible meeting between Hariri and the six MPs.
“I don’t see any meaning for a meeting between Prime Minister Hariri and the six Sunni MPs as long as their political rhetoric their insistence to be represented in the new Cabinet by one of them remains the same,” the Future MP said. He added that four of the six MPs already belonged to other parliamentary blocs, while only two, MPs Abdul Rahim Mrad and Adnan Traboulsi, do not belong to any bloc.
But two Hezbollah officials insisted that the solution to the Cabinet formation impasse lay with Hariri, by agreeing to name one of the six MPs as a minister in the next government.
“The Cabinet crisis in Lebanon is exacerbated and becoming more complicated because of the prime minister-designate’s disavowal of the [May] parliamentary election results and the right of the six independent MPs to be a ministerial representation, especially since they represent a weighty segment of the Lebanese,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouk said.
“The ballot boxes gave those MPs the right to a ministerial representation, not Hezbollah’s stance, which is a national and moral stance supporting those MPs’ right,” he said.
Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah also put the solution to the Cabinet problem on Hariri’s shoulders. “We want the government to be formed as soon as possible. But there are those who want to cancel the parliamentary election results … But some are trying to exclude them [from Cabinet], even though he is saying ‘we want to form a national unity government based on the election results,’” Fadlallah said.
“We have said it positively that the problem lies with the prime minister-designate. If he doesn’t want to resolve it, let him bear responsibility.
“But eventually, the government will be formed,” he added.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai decried what he called the “unjustified delay” in the government formation.
“Lebanon’s friends love Lebanon and are waiting for the new government to be announced. We repeat that it is not acceptable for any of the parties, no matter the reason, to obstruct government formation,” Rai told reporters at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport upon his return from a visit to Rome. “What is the reason preventing the formation?” he asked.
“So far, I have not seen anyone who puts Lebanon’s interest above any other consideration,” Rai said.
The patriarch called on rival political leaders to give priority to Lebanon and to the formation of a new government to carry out reforms in all sectors particularly the CEDRE conference decisions in order for Lebanon to obtain the $11.5 billion pledged by donor countries in grants and soft loans to finance investment and infrastructure projects.
