Miqati Meets Berri as 14-Member Cabinet Formula Makes the Rounds
Premier-designate Najib Miqati seems to have resumed consultations aimed at forming the new cabinet after meetings with the different representatives of March 8 leaders came to a standstill almost two weeks ago.
Miqati met with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh on Monday night. The two officials later held another round of talks in the presence of Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil and the assistant of the Hizbullah leader, Hussein Khalil, An Nahar daily reported.
Al-Liwaa newspaper confirmed that contacts are underway between Berri, Miqati, MP Walid Jumblat and the Hizbullah leadership to “end the comatose” cabinet formation efforts.
According to the daily, the different parties are mulling to form a 14-member government that represents the new parliamentary majority. In such a lineup, the justice ministry would be given to a neutral personality that is close to all sides and the family of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.
In this case, former Minister Bahij Tabbara would most likely be the justice minister, al-Liwaa said.
But Miqati is remaining mum, only saying that a “balanced lineup is lying in his pocket but is leaving it for the last moment when all efforts, suggestions and consensual solutions fail.”
According to As Safir daily, the premier-designate has urged his associates not to divulge any information in hopes that efforts to form the cabinet would resume following Monday’s meeting in Ain el-Tineh.
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