Hariri and Jumblat Discuss Developments over Dinner

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri had dinner Friday evening with the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party ex-MP Walid Jumblat and MP Wael Abu Faour at a Beirut restaurant, his office said.

“They discussed the latest political developments and the formation of the government,” the office added in a terse statement.

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 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 own ministers in a bid to press him.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil is meanwhile trying to convince the rival parties to accept a settlement based on naming a “consensus” Sunni minister.