Cabinet Formation Enters Last Stage Despite Aoun's Rejection of Latest Offer
A two-hour meeting held between President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Tammam Salam on Monday signaled that the formation of the new government was imminent despite the alleged insistence of the Free Patriotic Movement to hold onto the energy and telecommunications portfolios.
Suleiman and Salam discussed the ministerial portfolios and ways to choose the names of new ministers in a 24-member cabinet based on the 8-8-8 formula, media reports said Tuesday.
Free Patriotic Movement officials told An Nahar daily that FPM leader Michel Aoun was still awaiting a response from Salam on several questions that caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil had raised during their meeting on Sunday.
But An Nahar said that the premier-designate was the person waiting for the response of the FPM on a proposal that he had made to give it the foreign ministry and eduction portfolios in the new cabinet.
Aoun is expected to make his stance clear during a press conference he will hold following the weekly meeting of his Change and Reform bloc in Rabieh.
FPM sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the FPM's stance is clear. They began raising doubt whether Salam wanted to form a government or not.
Aoun's insistence to keep the energy portfolio, which is held by Bassil – his son-in-law – in the resigned government of Premier Najib Miqati has been blamed on the cabinet standstill after the rest of the rival factions struck a deal to give the March 8 and 14 alliances and centrists eight ministers each in a government based on the rotation of portfolios among sects.
As Safir newspaper said that Speaker Nabih Berri, who had played a major role in striking the agreement, has decided to distance himself from the latest crisis.
But Berri is not likely to approve a cabinet in which not all factions that were included in the deal are not represented.
As for Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, whose share in the government is part of the eight ministers that the centrists would get, has abided by the statement of “no comment.”
His envoy caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour met with Suleiman on Monday.
He told Hizbullah's al-Manar TV that an all-embracing government would be formed along with the FPM ministers and despite a lack of blessing from Aoun if the last-minute mediation efforts fail.
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