Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said on Sunday that the continuous delay in the cabinet formation would have negative repercussions at the political, economic, social and security levels.
Such delay would lead to the loss of the international community’s attention and interest in assisting Lebanon, namely in its financial assistance decided upon during the CEDRE Conference last April, according to Rahi.
Meanwhile, Democratic Gathering nloc MP Bilal Abdallah said that the inability to form a government was due to the failure in implementing the Taif Accord.
“As long as there are attempts to impose new norms in the political life, the formation of the government will be hampered,” he said in radio remarks.
Abdallah accused the Free Patriotic Movement of using the current tenure to impose its rules, saying: “All current practices represent a violation of the Taif Accord.”
“The PSP is not against the presidential powers, but against surpassing those powers,” he added.
He stressed that the obstacle to the government’s formation was the FPM’s insistence on having veto power.
“The formation of the government should be discussed by the prime minister-designate and not by the foreign minister,” he noted.
Lebanese Forces MP Wehbe Qatisha also accused the FPM of delaying the cabinet formation.
The LF “does not disrupt the path of forming a government, but those who want to seize the ministerial quotas are hampering its formation,” he said in press remarks.
“The head of FPM, Minister Jebran Bassil, should only talk about his share and leave the other ministries to those concerned,” he added.
