Salam Says Time Factor is a 'Threat,' Cabinet Formation is not a 'Whim'
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam denied that he was threatening to form a fait accompli government, saying the time factor had been threatening him along with the political factions in the country.
“It's not me who is threatening,” Salam told al-Akhbar daily in remarks published on Tuesday.
“On the contrary, the time factor is threatening me and threatening all of us amid an unstable situation and bombings,” he said.
Salam expressed fears that things would go out of control and Lebanon would fall in a Sunni-Shiite strife as a result of the spillover of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon.
“These are the true deadlines that are threatening us,” Salam said to shrug off reports that he would resort along with President Michel Suleiman to issue a de facto government if the rival parties failed to agree on the all-embracing cabinet.
“It seems that the Free Patriotic Movement is not viewing these threats,” he said.
Mediation efforts have so far failed to convince FPM leader Michel Aoun to agree on a deal struck between the rest of the major factions on the rotation of portfolios among sects and the political parties in the unity government.
This gives Suleiman and Salam an other option to form the all-embracing cabinet without Aoun.
“The cabinet formation is not a fantasy or a whim,” Salam said. “On the contrary, it is a serious mission to find an authority that plays its role and practices its authorities.”
“I have been patient for months,” he told al-Akhbar about his appointment in April last year.
Salam held onto the rotation of portfolios, saying there was no compromise on them.
Asked whether a neutral government would worsen the country's political crisis, he said: “Most probably and it could also not receive the parliament's vote of confidence.”
“But are we in a better situation?” he asked.
The premier-designate stressed that the Constitution backs the neutral cabinet even if a political party rejected it.
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