Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has met with Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil as part of efforts to remove the obstacles hindering the formation of Lebanon’s government as the party insists on giving independent lawmakers a representation in the next cabinet.
Following their Thursday visit to Dar al-Fatwa where they held talks with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, the group of six independent Sunni MPs met on Friday with President Michel Aoun, insisting to have a minister in Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s cabinet.
“Hariri holds the key to resolving this issue,” MP Abdul Rahim Mrad said in the wake of the meeting.
The state-run National News Agency said Saturday that Nasrallah and Bassil discussed ways to find a solution to the cabinet deadlock.
Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver a speech on Saturday during a Martyrs Day ceremony.
Sources close to the party told Asharq Al-Awsat that in his speech “Nasrallah would renew his support for the request of the six deputies not only as an expression of gratitude to their backing for the party on previous occasions, but also because naming one of them as minister would constitute a strategic gain for Hezbollah.”
The sources added that as long as the six ministers demand to be represented in the next cabinet, the party would continue to support them, even if that would delay the formation process for many more months or even a year.
Reports have talked about an initiative launched by Bassil, who is the head of the Free Patriotic Movement.
“We are trying to bring the viewpoints between the different teams closer,” Bassil’s sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday.
They said that Bassil has held separate talks with Hariri and Hezbollah.
