Hariri Appreciates Bassil's Effort, FPM Still Sees Govt. before Holidays
The ideas that Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil has proposed for resolving the so-called Sunni hurdle are “still not clear” and have not been officially presented to Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, a source close to the PM said.
“There is continuous communication between Bassil and PM-designate Hariri, who considers the former’s endeavor good and beneficial but so far has not yielded any results,” the source told al-Hayat daily in remarks published Thursday.
The source added that some leaks suggest that a leading proposal involves giving a government seat to MP Qassem Hashem, who is a member of the Consultative Sunni Gathering and the only Sunni in Speaker Nabih Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc.
But “there are no indications that Hariri could accept this formula,” the source noted.
An FPM source informed on Bassil’s mediation meanwhile emphasized that the mediation of the FPM chief “will not stop.”
“Things are not deadlocked and we still believe that there will be a government before the holidays,” the source added.
A minister in the caretaker cabinet meanwhile told al-Hayat that there are three proposed solutions.
“The first is raising the government members from 30 to 32, which would allow for the representation of Alawites and Christian minorities. Ex-PM Najib Miqati’s bloc would get the Alawite minister (MP Ali Darwish) in return for giving up his agreement with Hariri on a Sunni minister, and President (Michel) Aoun would get the additional Christian minister,” the minister said.
“But Hariri will not approve of an increase in the number of ministers and Berri is also not enthusiastic about such a proposal,” the minister added.
The second solution would be Aoun’s naming of a Sunni minister who would be close to him and to Hizbullah and its Sunni allies, the minister said, while noting that “Hariri would get a Christian minister” and that “Aoun does not plan to give up a seat from his share.”
“The third solution entails Aoun giving up the Sunni seat he had exchanged with Hariri in return for a Christian seat for the latter. The president would then name a minister from the six MPs or one approved by them,” the minister went on to say.
The new 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 pro-Hizbullah Sunni MPs surfaced.
Hizbullah has insisted that the six Sunni MPs should be given a seat in the government, refraining from providing Hariri with the names of its three Shiite ministers in a bid to press him.
Hariri has rejected the demand, announcing that he’d rather step down than give the aforementioned lawmakers a seat from his own share in the government.
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