Report: Salam to Form De Facto Cabinet without March 8 Alliance
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam is seeking to form a cabinet that doesn't include the March 8 alliance, media reports said on Friday.
According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, consultations with the March 8 coalition failed to reach any fruitful results as both sides are holding on to their stances.
The matter prompted Salam to deliver a message to the leadership of the March 8 camp that he will form his cabinet with or without their participation.
The daily said that Salam will announce the formation of his cabinet on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, Salam is pressed to form a de facto government within 48 hours, however, AMAL movement leader Speak Nabih Berri's comments concerning centrists and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's condition over the formation of a national unity cabinet collapsed all the recent efforts.
Sources close to Salam told An Nahar newspaper said that the PM-designate aims at forming his cabinet from centrists to deprive the March 8 and 14 alliances from any chance to topple his government.
On Wednesday, Berri criticized those who began classifying themselves as centrists while they are “clearly affiliated in the March 14 alliance.”
He wondered how several senior officials take firm stances against a certain team then categorize themselves as centrists.
On Thursday, Nassrallah stressed in a speech that Hizbullah wants the new cabinet to be formed.
He demanded that the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp be represented in cabinet according to its “parliamentary weight.”
Salam is seeking to form what he called a “cabinet of national interest” that comprises no MP hopefuls.
Meanwhile, the March 14 alliance have been calling for a neutral cabinet, while the March 8 camp has demanded a “political government” and centrist Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat has stressed that his bloc will not grant its vote of confidence to a “one-sided cabinet.”
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