Report: Bassil Has Proposal to Solve ‘Sunni Obstacle’
Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has reportedly made a new suggestion to resolve the hurdle of independent Sunni MPs representation in the new government, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.
The Minister has been holding meetings “away from the spotlight” and discussing the issue with various parties, said the daily.
The proposal suggests that Sunni MPs allied with Hizbullah be represented by a figure from West Bekaa, excluding from the list of candidates MPs Jihad Abdulsamad and Faisal Karami of the National Bloc, led by Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, according to the daily.
The government was on the verge of formation on October 29 after the Lebanese Forces accepted the portfolios that were assigned to it but a last-minute hurdle over the representation of the aforementioned MPs surfaced.
Hizbullah insisted that the six Sunni MPs should be given a seat in the government, refraining from providing Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri with the names of its own ministers in a bid to press him.
President Michel Aoun -- a Hizbullah ally and the FPM founder -- threw his support behind Hariri and rejected the demand during a TV interview, slamming the “use of delay as a political tactic” and insisting that the aforementioned MPs are “individuals and not a bloc.”
In an attempt to garner support from Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdulatif Deryan, said MPs headed to Dar al-Fatwa on Thursday where they met the Mufti.
But Dar al-Fatwa made a neutral position standing at an equal distance from all political parties.
Deryan assured during the meeting that “Dar al-Fatwa has its doors open to all Lebanese without any differentiation, but rather strengthens their unity, solidarity and dialogue, and renounces differences.”
Source: Naharnet
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