Miqati Says Talks Ongoing over Tasks of Caretaker Cabinet
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Saturday that talks are ongoing to determine the correct reference over the tasks that should be carried out by a caretaker cabinet.
“Any dispute is only over the right way to achieve the public interest,” Miqati told reporters after talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.
Miqati has been boycotting parliamentary sessions with 45 items on their agenda over claims that the legislature should only meet for emergency issues amid a resigned cabinet.
The sessions haven't been held yet over the boycott of several parliamentary blocs, mainly al-Mustaqbal, which has severely criticized Berri for trying to impose the power of the legislature on the rest of the state institutions.
Miqati pointed out that the two officials discussed the lingering political disputes in the county, hailing Speaker Barri's “political wisdom.”
“ We discussed the critical stage that the country is passing through and ways to resolve the difficulties confronting us,” he told reporters.
The caretaker PM is seeking to file a request for the parliament to hold a session set to clearly specify the tasks that could be carried out by a caretaker cabinet.
“I am not seeking to amend the constitution... Several matters require the approval of the cabinet amid the exceptional conditions that Lebanon is passing through and the sharp rift between the political foes over the formation of a new cabinet,” Miqati previously said.
Endeavors are ongoing to end the cabinet deadlock amid reports that President Michel Suleiman insists on forming it ahead of the Independence Day on November 22 based on any distribution of portfolios as long as the rival parties agree.
Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam continuously said that conditions and counter-conditions set by the rival sides have brought his efforts to form a cabinet to a stalemate.
Since his appointment to form a cabinet in April, Salam has been seeking the formation of a 24-member cabinet in which the March 8, March 14 and centrists camps would each get eight ministers.
However, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah expressed support to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's proposal to form a new cabinet in which the March 8 and 14 alliances would get nine ministers each and six ministers would be given to the centrists – Suleiman, Salam and Jumblat.
This formula prevents a certain party from controlling the government by giving veto power to Hizbullah and its team and another veto power to March 14, he said.
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