The head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, on Sunday ruled out joining a new government led by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, a new hurdle for efforts to pull Lebanon out of political and economic paralysis.
Politicians have been at loggerheads over the shape of a new administration since the last one quit in the aftermath of the devastating Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion.
Hariri was named premier for a fourth time in October promising to form a cabinet of specialists to enact reforms necessary to unlock much needed foreign aid.
But Bassil, who is President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, said in a televised speech the FPM would not join the cabinet as long as Hariri insisted on choosing all ministers.
"We don't entrust Hariri alone with reform in Lebanon," Bassil said. "In short we don't want to take part in this government."
After Bassil's speech, Hariri's al-Mustaqbal movement said it did not want to be dragged into political bickering and that the cabinet line-up was ready and waiting to shoulder its duties.
"It will be a government that will take up the necessary reforms according to the French initiative and not according to sectarian and racist 'Bassil-like' considerations," a statement by the party said.
However, Bassil said Hariri did not appear to be serious about forming a government: "Every time he meets the president he takes a different line-up with him," Bassil said. "Someone who does that is serious and wants to form a government? Or is wasting time?"
