Report: Interior Portfolio Main Obstacle, Hizbullah Backs Govt. Formation

The dispute over who gets the interior portfolio is still the main obstacle delaying the formation of the new government, a media report said.

“Should it be resolved, all the other obstacles will disappear,” informed sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri “will not give it up and will not back down from his stance, seeing as he considered that he made a confessional and Sunni concession when he allotted it to the Greek Orthodox sect and thought that the candidate who will assume it might be a centrist,” the sources said.

“He proposed for it Beirut prosecutor Judge Ziad Abu Haidar, while the President is insisting on Adel Yammine, who officially belongs to the Free Patriotic Movement,” the sources added.

As for Hizbullah’s role in the current deliberations, the sources said the party’s rivals might say that it does not want a government but noted that “the party backs the government formation as soon as possible to halt the country’s deterioration.”

“But it will not engage in a battle against its allies and it does not want to pressure (President Michel) Aoun or (FPM chief Jebran) Bassil,” the sources went on to say.