Security Portfolios Delay Cabinet Formation as Salam Seeks to Appease Rival Camps
Last minute obstacles linked to two key security portfolios prevented the formation of the government on Thursday after the March 8 alliance expressed reservations on making the two of them as part of the share of the March 14 camp.
President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Tammam Salam were planning to issue the cabinet formation decrees on Thursday but the Hizbullah-led March 8 team insisted to stick to the threatened boycott of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.
Aoun has rejected the rotation of portfolios as part of a deal struck between the rival parties on the 24-member cabinet based on the 8-8-8 formula, hinting that he would pull his ministers out of it and drawing the support of his allies in the March 8 alliance.
The FPM chief has been holding onto the energy ministry which is currently led by his son-in-law Jebran Bassil.
The threat to withdraw from the cabinet was exacerbated by the reservations expressed by March 8 over a decision by Salam to grant both the interior and defense portfolios to March 14 in addition to a proposal to hand the interior ministry to retired Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, who is a staunch supporter of al-Mustaqbal movement.
An Nahar daily on Friday quoted sources as saying that al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri stuck to his demand for the interior ministry after the March 8 alliance “took advantage of the obstacle caused by Aoun” by sending signals that it would withdraw from the cabinet.
The sources told the newspaper that Hariri held onto giving the interior ministry to Rifi and the defense ministry to March 14 MP Butros Harb.
But the negotiations later led to a proposal by Salam to give the defense ministry to former minister Khalil Hrawi, who is a centrist from Suleiman's camp, and the interior ministry to al-Mustaqbal MP Nuhad al-Mashnouq or the former head of the Tripoli Bar Association, Rashid Derbas.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper said Marwan Zein was another candidate for the interior ministry.
Harb would, in his turn, be granted another portfolio as part of the eight-ministers share of the March 14 alliance, the sources said.
Such a proposal has appeased the March 8 alliance that both key security portfolios would not go to the rival March 14 camp, al-Joumhouria said. But it stressed that by late Thursday, March 14 had not yet approved the suggestion.
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