Attempts to Break Cabinet Deadlock Resume Amid Grim Hopes

The aides of the speaker and the Hizbullah leader visited the Free Patriotic Movement chief and the president on Tuesday after they resumed their mediation efforts to solve the cabinet impasse.

But An Nahar daily said Wednesday that the separate meetings that MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil held with FPM chief Michel Aoun and President Michel Suleiman did not reach any results.

The aides of Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah did not meet with PM-designate Najib Miqati after the meetings they held with Aoun and Suleiman, the newspaper said.

Miqati had held talks with Berri Monday in the presence of the two key mediators to discuss proposals to form the government.

Berri confirmed to An Nahar and As Safir on Wednesday that a constructive step has been taken to solve the government impasse. He hoped that the move would lead to positive results.

When asked about his meeting with Miqati on Monday, Berri said: “It was good.”

Well-informed sources told As Safir that during his talks with the speaker, Miqati expressed readiness to positively respond to any “reasonable cabinet formula.”

FPM leadership sources also said that the latest attempts to break the deadlock resumed from the point where they had reached when Aoun and Suleiman agreed to nominate retired Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Marwan Charbel to the interior ministry post.

They stressed that if Miqati has the intention to form the cabinet, then “we have neared” a lineup.