Geagea: Political Forces Seeking to Name Advisers as Ministers

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday accused the political forces that are forming the new government of seeking to appoint supposedly technocratic ministers who are “closer to being advisers to these political forces.”

“Everything that has been and is still being leaked to the media about the anticipated government line-up is not reassuring at all, whether in terms of the interference of the very political forces who were behind the current crisis in the country or in terms of the feud over portfolios among these forces,” Geagea added in a written statement.

“May God protect the Lebanese people in these difficult circumstances, after the forces responsible for them have insisted on their former ugly practices,” the LF leader went on to say.

Lebanon is without a cabinet and in the grips of a deepening economic crisis after a two-month-old protest movement forced Saad Hariri to stand down as prime minister on October 29.

Anti-government protests continued after Hariri's resignation, while political parties negotiated for weeks before nominating Hassan Diab, a professor and former education minister, to replace him on December 19.

Echoing protester demands, Diab promised to form a government of independent experts within six weeks -- in a country where appointing a cabinet can take months.

But the majority of protesters are unconvinced by Diab’s promise, decrying his participation as a minister in a previous government deemed corrupt. The support given to him by powerful Shiite movement Hizbullah also angers many protesters and pro-Hariri Sunnis.

The 60-year-old Diab, who has a low public profile and styles himself as a technocrat, last month called protester demands legitimate but asked them to give him a chance to form "an exceptional government."