Salam, Suleiman Put 'Final Touches' on Cabinet Lineup

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam was Wednesday putting the “final touches” on his cabinet lineup, amid reports that he might wait for some time before announcing it.

Salam discussed a draft lineup with President Michel Suleiman during a meeting in Baabda in the evening, according to al-Jadeed television.

An Nahar newspaper quoted sources close to Salam as saying that the meeting was aimed at "putting the final touches on the cabinet lineup."

The PM-designate, however, "will not announce any stance before Thursday," according to al-Jadeed.

Sources close to Salam also told al-Manar TV that he visited Baabda to “fine-tune the cabinet lineup,” as Suleiman's sources told the same TV network that “it is still possible to take some time before announcing the cabinet lineup.”

For his part, caretaker Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil told al-Manar that Speaker Nabih Berri's stance on the formation of any so-called “de facto cabinet” will depend on the decision of the Christian parties and whether or not they will pull their ministers out of the new cabinet.

“Should they decide to boycott, the issue will become related to the National Pact,” a 1943 unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state, the minister added.

Meanwhile, MTV reported that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat “has confirmed to Salam that his ministers won't resign from the (new) cabinet, in a decision that has been coordinated with Berri.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday reiterated that the formation of a so-called “de facto cabinet” would violate the 1943 National Pact, issuing a stern warning against the formation of such a cabinet.

Aoun's insistence to keep the energy portfolio, which is held by Jebran Bassil – his son-in-law – in the resigned government of Premier Najib Miqati has been blamed for the cabinet standstill after the rest of the rival factions struck a deal to give the March 8 and 14 alliances and centrists eight ministers each in a government based on the rotation of portfolios among sects.