French Envoy Secured Phone Call between Hariri, Bassil

French presidential envoy Patrick Durel managed to secure a phone call between PM-designate Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil during his latest visit to Lebanon, media reports said.

“The phone call lasted for seconds, without producing results that can contribute to speeding up the formation of the government,” political sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Sunday.

The call “indicated that the problem between them is political and not personal,” the sources added.

Most of the political forces that Durel met meanwhile held President Michel Aoun and Bassil responsible for the ongoing delay in the cabinet formation process, endorsing “Hariri’s viewpoint” in this regard, the sources said.

“Hariri is insisting on consulting with Aoun, who should not allow another partner to interfere in these consultations,” the sources went on to say.

The sources also revealed that Durel did not agree to Aoun’s suggestion that the latest U.S. sanctions on Bassil have “obstructed the cabinet formation mission.”

And denying that Durel has threatened French sanctions on obstructors during his visit, the sources said the French envoy did not visit Beirut seeking “the formation of a government at any cost,” noting that Paris still wants the formation of “a government of independents and specialists who do not belong to parties and who enjoy competency and integrity.”