Report: Toil and Trouble to Form Non-Partisan Lebanon Cabinet

At the forefront of challenges facing PM-designate Mustafa Adib is whether Lebanon’s rival political parties will allow him to form a government of “experts” excluding political parties or any of their representatives, An Nahar daily wrote on Thursday.

Adib had pledged on Wednesday to form a "government of experts" to spearhead reforms demanded by France and the rest of the international community as well as by the vast majority of the Lebanese people.

One more “no less important” challenge facing Adib lies in facilitating his mission to form a government and testing the parties’ “genuine” willingness to ditch demands for government portfolios, considering how past “fait accompli” governments were formed devoting shares and quotas for specific parties over so many years, added the daily.

During Tuesday’s talks between French President Emmanuel Macron with representatives of Lebanon's top nine political blocs, most of these parties expressed willingness to accept rotation in the ministries, it added.

But hints and “conditions” began to emerge, said An Nahar, through “hypothetical and pre-emptive demands heard by the PM-designate from some political parties, which means that his task will not be easy, as impressions prevail.”