Report: Conflict Over Portfolios Raises Doubts about Performance of Future Govt.

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

As wrangling between political parties over ministerial portfolios continues to delay the government formation, a senior Lebanese politician told al-Hayat daily on Monday that the government has a set of delicate tasks ahead that it should handle as follows:

1. Addressing the economic situation starting with reducing the deficit by finding a radical solution to the electricity crisis, tackling the waste crisis, and implementing the CEDRE conference decisions in terms of reforms and involving the private sector in infrastructure development, and fighting corruption.

2. Continuing to seal deals regarding the oil blocks offshore after the signing of contracts to drill for oil and gas early in 2018.

3. Demarcation of the land and sea borders between Lebanon and Israel which has become an international demand, mainly that the exploration of oil and gas wealth is connected to it.

4 - Determine the ways to address the Lebanese-Syrian relations, which parties in Lebanon are in conflict over the approach, whether regarding the return of refugees, the economic relations, or the course of the Syria crisis. At the same time, reactivation of relations between Lebanon and Gulf countries, which saw a setback in the previous phase as a result of Gulf resentment of Hizbullah’s intervention in the Syrian and Yemeni wars and its involvement in the internal situation of a number of Gulf States.

5 - Discuss the defense strategy that deals with Hizbullah’s weapons in light of the increasing US sanctions on the party and its effects on Lebanon.

6. Complete the implementation of the Taif Agreement in terms of direct administrative decentralization and to discuss the establishment of the Supreme Commission for the abolition of sectarianism.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, wondered saying: “How can the next government come close to these major and strategic headlines at a time when political parties prepare to enter the cabinet as they lurch into each other and struggle for influence and power, especially in the Christian arena?"

The source expressed “pessimism” about the country’s fate noting the mentality of “pursuit of benefits and competition over administrative positions and sovereign portfolios,” noting that the “concerns of some do not focus on sensing the risks that beset the economic conditions, but rely on the method of retaining gains in the name of slogans related to sectarian rights.”

SourceNaharnet
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