Khalil Says No Current Talks on Govt.

MP Ali Hassan Khalil of Amal Movement's Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc, said currently there were no talks about a new government in Lebanon, after the resignation of PM-designate Mustafa Adib over a Cabinet impasse.

The MP added that President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri could hold discussions on the matter. “Nothing prevents talks between President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,” he said.

On French President Emmanuel Macron’s press conference, Berri’s aide, Khalil said: “We have no comments to say about the French president's press conference. The agreed initiative is there in writing and was distributed and everyone one knows what it states.”

Macron on Sunday blasted Hizbullah and Amal Movement, criticized ex-PM Saad Hariri’s conduct in the cabinet formation negotiations and said Lebanese parties now have four to six weeks to form a new government or face “a different approach.”

Macron said the political elite had decided "to betray" their obligations and had committed "collective treason" by failing to form a government.

"Amal and Hizbullah decided that nothing should change in Lebanon and I understood that Hizbullah did not honor the pledge it made to me. The failure is their failure and I don't bear its responsibility,” Macron said.

Adib was set to form a mission government of experts, but his efforts were effectively blocked by the Shiite duo’s conditions to name the Shiite ministers in the cabinet.