Cabinet Formation Awaits 'Demarcation' of Powers

The most difficult task facing PM-designate Saad Hariri in forming a new cabinet, is the agreement with the Lebanese Forces and Speaker Nabih Berri on the portfolios that will be allotted to their parties, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

Prominent Free Patriotic Movement sources told the daily that whenever an agreement was reached with the LF and Berri on their share in the government, “and when that happens, the General (President Michel Aoun) will facilitate Hariri's mission to complete the construction of the government because it is in the interest of the new term to accelerate the formation so it does not lose the presidential elections glow.”

The sources added that Hariri will hold a meeting with newly elected President Michel Aoun to display the initial vision of the composition of the government, after he receives the final outcome from the LF and Speaker Berri.

They pointed out that the president can not determine his final decision on his share in the new cabinet if the consultations of the PM-designate with related parties were not final.

Media reports said that the Free Patriotic Movement is seeking to grab the finance portfolio which was allotted to the bloc of Berri in the former government.

Berri adheres to his demand that the defense ministry remains with his bloc and was quoted earlier as saying “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.”

Aoun's election as president and Saad Hariri's appointment as premier-designate have raised hopes that Lebanon can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees.

The process of forming a government could take months, with horsetrading likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the finance, defense and energy ministries.