Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has allegedly accepted to give up his demand to keep Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas in his post after being pressured by his allies.

Al-Liwaa daily said that a settlement was reached between Aoun and Premier-designate Najib Miqati who succeeded in “liberating” the telecom ministry from “the grip of troublemaker” Nahhas and allotting the labor portfolio to him instead.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the Change and Reform bloc wants a confirmation from Premier-designate Najib Miqati that a deal on the cabinet makeup was final before giving him a list of names of its candidates for the new cabinet.

Bassil, who is Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, told An Nahar daily published Tuesday that the bloc “is waiting for the final confirmation of the agreement reached” between the different parties.

A major hurdle preventing the formation of the new cabinet began surfacing this week after Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun insisted that the candidate for the second Maronite minister, part of President Michel Suleiman’s share, should not be from Jbeil and Kesrouan.

Beirut newspapers quoted informed sources as saying on Tuesday that for election reasons, Aoun is refusing that the sixth Maronite minister in the cabinet be from Jbeil and Kesrouan for fears that Suleiman would undercut the FPM chief’s popular base in the two regions in the parliamentary elections in 2013.

The Higher Islamic Council on Saturday voiced concern over the delay in the formation of the cabinet and called for the respect of decisions taken by the government.

After its weekly meeting at Dar al-Fatwa, the council reiterated the need to remain committed to nationalistic stances in terms of the preservation of national unity and the state and its constitutional institutions.

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas said that he is still expecting an action to be taken by the military judiciary concerning the official complaint he filed to the government commissioner at the military court against Internal Security Forces Chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi.

“We don’t understand the upheaval created over the issue, and why they are insisting on hiding what the second floor (of a building affiliated with the telecom ministry in Adliyeh) contains,” Nahhas told As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

Sources close to Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri denied that OGERO Telecom Director General Abdul Monhem Youssef had handed over to Army Chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji the magnetic cards of the controversial second floor of a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry in Beirut’s Adliyeh area.

The sources told al-Akhbar daily that Qahwaji didn’t request to be delivered the keys during his meeting with Youssef on Wednesday. They noted that the meeting was limited to “exchanging points of view.”

Security forces on Wednesday ended a scuffle that erupted between OGERO employees over controversial political slogans they raised during a sit-in against unpaid salaries.

The sit-in, which was aimed at showing solidarity against a delay to transfer funds to OGERO, turned ugly after the split between the employees caused a clash.

Ogero Telecom General Director Abdul Monem Youssef returned to Lebanon on Tuesday to a throng of photographers at Beirut international airport seeking to take his first photo after the incident at a Telecommunications Ministry building at al-Adliyeh, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Wednesday.

Airport security however prevented the photographers from taking any pictures.

The parliamentary telecommunications committee held a meeting on Monday to discuss the suggestion to form a specialized technical team to determine what is located on the second floor of a Telecommunications Ministry building at Adliyeh, revealed the head of the committee MP Hasan Fadlallah.

He said during a press conference after a heated committee session at parliament: “A dispute erupted over who has the authority to appoint an Ogero Telecom member in the technical team.”

Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas said that the telecom ministry employees in Beirut’s Adliyeh building were banned from entering the rooms where the equipment donated by China were located.

Nahhas told As Safir newspaper on Monday that “Ogero officials changed the magnetic card codes that are used to open the doors.”