Ahmed Karami Tells Miqati he is a Priority as Hizbullah, Amal Seek to Have a Sunni in their Cabinet Shares

MP Ahmed Karami has unveiled that he told his ally Premier-designate Najib Miqati that he should be a priority in getting a cabinet seat after Hizbullah and the Amal movement backed bringing Faisal Karami to the new government.

The lawmaker told Kuwait’s al-Seyassah newspaper in remarks published Sunday that “Miqati doesn’t have a problem in giving a seat to Faisal Karami.”

“But I clearly told him that there is an alliance between me and him and the preference is that I become the third minister representing Tripoli if there is a tendency to represent it by three ministers,” he said.

Ahmed Karami also confirmed that the obstacles preventing the formation of Miqati’s cabinet were local. “There is no foreign intervention … either in names or in portfolios.”

An Nahar daily said that the aides of Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, respectively MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil, suggested to Miqati several days ago that he grants a seat to Faisal Karami, the son of former PM Omar Karami.

But Miqati informed them that the issue of the Karami family representation in the government should be settled either by solving the differences between Omar Karami and MP Ahmed Karami or by allowing the former prime minister to choose a representative from outside the family.

According to An Nahar, the Shiite pair sought by meddling in Miqati’s choice for a Sunni representative in the cabinet to embarrass him in his hometown and shatter his relations with his ally Ahmed Karami.

The daily stressed that the lawmaker isn’t seeking a cabinet seat although politicians like Minister Mohammed Safadi and MP Nicolas Fattoush will be “rewarded” by possibly getting seats for announcing their withdrawal from the old parliamentary majority that was backed by Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri.

Given the latest tumult on the Sunni representation, Miqati’s sources told An Nahar that media reports about giving a government seat to Faisal Karami are not the best way to solve the problem. They did not give further details.