Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has revealed that there was no progress in his attempts to come up with a government line-up, describing the stalemate as a purely “Lebanese failure” away from foreign interference, and stressing that any attempt to condition the normalization of relations with Syria would further hinder the cabinet formation process.
In a discussion with journalists before chairing the weekly meeting of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc at the Center House in Beirut on Tuesday, Hariri said: “We are a country with economic problems, surrounded by regional crises. We should form a government as soon as possible, but it must be a national consensus cabinet, in which all parties participate according to our political agreement with them.”
“If one party believes that it will enter the government to obstruct another party’s (plans), this would be its biggest mistake, and it would bring us back to previous governments that were supposed to be national unity governments but were not,” he warned
Regarding the demand of some parties to include the normalization of relations with the Syrian regime in the government's policy statement, as a precondition for the formation process, he said: “Then the cabinet will not be formed.”
On requests made by the Lebanese Forces over shares in the cabinet, Hariri said: “The LF were honest in their demands. They want either the post of Deputy Prime Minister or a sovereign portfolio. They refused the offer of four key ministries.”
“The sovereign portfolio issue needs some extra time, and everyone is working to solve the problems,” he added.
Hariri also denied that Free Patriotic Movement leader caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil had asked him to give the LF a sovereign portfolio from his own share.
