Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
Amid signs of flexibility in the six Sunni MPs’ stance, attention is focused on a crucial meeting set to be held in the next 48 hours between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri that could help break the monthslong gridlock, political sources said Sunday. “President Aoun is expected to brief Prime Minister Hariri on the outcome of his consultations with the main political parties as part of an initiative aimed at finding a solution to the problem of representing the six [pro-Hezbollah] Sunni MPs in the new government,” a political source told The Daily Star.
Another political source had told The Daily Star Friday that Aoun would prod Hariri to meet with the six MPs in a bid to reach a compromise on their representation that could eventually clear the way for the government formation.
A key element of Aoun’s initiative calls for representing the six lawmakers in the next government from the president’s share with a candidate from outside their group, the source said.
Sources at Baabda Palace cited an atmosphere of “flexibility and breakthrough” that could facilitate the formation of a new Cabinet following weeks of political escalation by the three parties concerned with the last stumbling block – Hariri, Hezbollah and the six Sunni lawmakers.
“Representing the six Sunni MPs from the president’s share with someone from outside their group is the most plausible proposal so far,” a source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star. The source said he expected the Aoun-Hariri meeting to take place Monday.
Hariri returned to Beirut Saturday evening after a few days’ trip to London, where he attended the Lebanese-U.K. Business and Investment Forum. He said Thursday that the government “hopefully will be formed before the end of the year. … Most of the obstacles are resolved – there is still one obstacle, and I think we will solve it soon.”
The prime minister-designate was referring to a demand by the six Sunni lawmakers not affiliated with the Future Movement for representation in the new Cabinet that has held up the formation since late October. Hariri has rejected the MPs’ demand and also rebuffed their request to meet with him to discuss the issue.
Soon after his return to Beirut, Hariri and his son, Hussam, headed to Downtown Beirut to visit the tomb of the late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, where they read Quranic verses for the soul of his slain father and those of others killed with him in the 2005 suicide bombing. Summing up the Cabinet formation deadlock, now in its seventh month, a source close to Hariri told The Daily Star Sunday: “The new Cabinet lineup is ready and it only needs the names of Hezbollah’s three ministers for the prime minister-designate to announce it.
Hezbollah, which has invented the six lawmakers’’ representation problem, is blocking the government formation.”
Despite the six MPs’ escalatory tone over the past few days, the source said there has been no change in Hariri’s refusal to cede one ministerial seat to the six MPs from the Future Movement’s share, or in his rejection of their representation by one of them from other blocs’ share.
Hariri has also opposed a proposal, floated by caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, to expand the planned 30-member Cabinet to 32 members to allow for the six MPs’ representation.
However, Hezbollah now appears to be seeking the quick formation of the government.
“Hezbollah is pushing the six Sunni MPs to display flexibility in their approach toward their representation in the next government with the aim of accelerating the formation,” the political source said.
Aoun’s talks with a Hezbollah delegation were all the more important given the party’s insistence that the six be represented in the new government has blocked the formation. Hezbollah has withheld the names of its three ministers until the MPs’ demand for representation has been met.
In a softening of their position, Qassem Hashem, one of the six MPs, signaled their readiness to accept to be represented in the next government by someone from outside their group, thus dropping their insistence to be represented by one of them.
“Should we cede our demand [to be represented by one of the six MPs], we will then name a candidate, who cannot be rejected or vetoed, to represent us,” Hashem told MTV.
A senior Future Movement official sounded optimistic about a possible breakthrough in the Cabinet crisis. “The atmosphere I want to convey indicates that the Cabinet formation will take place between Christmas and the New Year,” Ahmad Hariri, secretary general of the Future Movement, told NBN TV Sunday night.
Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, also voiced hope for a new government to be formed as a Christmas gift to the country. He called on all the political parties to make concessions to help in the formation.
“The Christmas gift will be the announcement of the Cabinet [lineup] [to coincide] with the birth of Jesus Christ. This government will [serve] everyone. If it is not formed, this will be a failure to everyone. If it is born, this will be a success for all of Lebanon,” Bassil said in a speech at a church in the southern town of Rmeish after attending a Christmas recital.
Declaring that the new government would be based on “justice,” he said: “Since the government will [serve] everyone, everyone must sacrifice to help its birth, while respecting the formation criteria. We want the government for the good of everyone and to fight corruption with a new mentality to build the nation’s future.”
Bassil, whose shuttle diplomacy among rival factions had failed to resolve the Cabinet formation crisis, also attended a Christmas recital in the southern town of Marjayoun.
The FPM leader stressed that a solution to the Cabinet formation crisis needs to ensure that there is “no injustice, no coercion, no exclusion and no monopoly” in the new government.
“Just representation helps bring about a national unity government … God willing, during the festivities, there will be a national unity government with just representation,” Bassil said.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai criticized politicians who, he said, are “obstructing the formation of a new government, and consequently, deepening the economic and financial crisis that has reached a limit threatening the country, in addition to increasing the citizens’ poverty.”
“How can we accept this abnormal situation in exercising political activity? How can leaders and parliamentary blocs consult and talk to each other, while each side stands firm on his opinion and demand?” Rai asked during Sunday’s sermon in Bkirki.
The patriarch pleaded with the country’s political leaders to open “a window so that God’s light can enter into their minds and hearts to clear them from the darkness of interests, intransigence, hatred, corruption and illegal gains.”
