AMAL, Hizbullah to Get 3 Portfolios Each, Including Finance, Public Works
The Shiite community will be represented by six ministerial portfolios in the new cabinet, including three for Speaker Nabih Berri and three for Hizbullah that is inclined to give one of them to a March 8 ally, a media report said.
“The finance portfolio and the public works portfolio, or one of the same caliber, will go to Berri, in addition to a third portfolio other than energy and water, which the speaker has refused that it be part of his share,” unnamed sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.
Hizbullah wants to represent its other allies, specifically the Syrian Social National Party, with one of the three portfolios, the sources added.
Berri's AMAL Movement has clearly stated that it wants the finance portfolio while noting that “all other portfolios are negotiable.”
But while Berri's partners in the negotiations have suggested, according to al-Akhbar newspaper, that “the Taef Accord did not stipulate that the finance portfolio should always be allocated to the Shiite sect,” Berri has noted that “the Taef Accord stipulates that it should be part of the Shiite sect's share on the basis that the finance minister's signature on decrees is the only Shiite signature in the executive authority.”
“The finance portfolio was not with the Lebanese Forces so that I try to take it from them. They are the ones saying that they want to adhere to the Taef Accord,” Berri has been quoted as saying by his visitors.
The sources have also noted that the Free Patriotic Movement is also seeking to grab the finance portfolio.
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