Reports: Govt. Hurdles Persist as U.S. Pushes for Formation
The talk of positiveness in the cabinet formation process over the past hours has turned out to be “fabricated” and “not based on anything tangible,” a media report said on Tuesday.
“The obstacles are still the same and the PM-designate submitted to the President a complete line-up that included a distribution of portfolios to sects and confessions in addition to the names of some candidates, but the disagreements over shares continued, especially that (President Michel) Aoun rejected certain ministerial allotments,” informed sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.
“The President proposed a Aounist candidate for the justice portfolio but he was rejected by Miqati. He also suggested giving the environment portfolio to the Progressive Socialist Party instead of social affairs,” the sources added, noting that what Aoun proposed “disturbed everything that the PM-designate had pledged to the blocs that named him.”
“The interior portfolio hurdles has also not been resolved in terms of selecting the candidate for the post, in addition to the dispute over the finance portfolio, with Aoun rejecting the nomination of Youssef Khalil for it,” the sources went on to say, noting that “the distribution of some service-related portfolios has also not been finalized.”
Highly informed sources meanwhile told the daily that “the foreign pressures pushing for government formation have become very huge.”
Monday’s visit to the presidential palace by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea was “a step in that direction,” the sources said.
“The same message was also carried to Beirut on Thursday by CIA chief William Burns, who met with the chiefs of security agencies and stressed the need to prevent a collapse of the security situation in Lebanon,” the sources added.
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