Miqati Expected to Visit Suleiman, Names of President’s Ministers Left for Last Minute

Premier-designate Najib Miqati is expected to visit Baabda palace on Thursday to inform President Michel Suleiman about the latest developments in the cabinet formation process.

An Nahar newspaper said that Miqati held an extensive telephone conversation with Suleiman on Wednesday to update them him about the results of his talks with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun at parliament and a meeting he held later in the day with Caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil, Speaker Nabih Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hassan Khalil, who is Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s assistant.

Miqati asked Aoun to provide him with the names of his candidates for the portfolios that are part of his share in the cabinet and the head of the Change and Reform bloc promised to provide him with a quick reply, An Nahar said.

Informed sources told al-Joumhouria daily that the president would make a last minute decision on the names of his ministers in the cabinet and then sign the government decree.

Suleiman and Miqati would discuss the names in the minutes before the announcement of the lineup, they said.

The president’s sources also told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Suleiman would name his ministers when Miqati brings him his draft cabinet lineup.