Salam Still Patient but Obstructed by Grim Reality
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam said Wednesday that had a decision to give up his task to form the new government served the nation, he would have taken the move.
“Everyone knows that in my political career I haven't been after posts,” Salam told reporters at Baabda Palace following talks with President Michel Suleiman.
“I would have given up my task had it served the nation,” he said.
“May God give me patience,” Salam said after reiterating that the current stalemate was neither comforting to him nor to the president.
He stressed that his objective remains the country's national interest.
“Since the beginning I said I will try not to procrastinate the (cabinet) formation but intentions are something and reality is something else,” he said.
“Had I given myself a timeframe (for assembling a government) we would have been faced by failure,” the PM-designate told reporters.
Asked about his recent visit to al-Mustaqbal movement leader former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Paris, Salam said Hariri supported him in his mission.
Salam has repeatedly blamed the conditions and counter conditions set by the rival March 8 and March 14 camps on his failure to come up with a cabinet line up since his appointment in April.
“Everybody knows that the regional situation is confrontational which does not help at all not only at the level of the cabinet formation but also in all issues,” he said.
Salam said he was being patient over his keenness not to behave in a way that would be seen as a challenge by one of the rival parties.
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