Ongoing consultations to form a new Lebanese government have not achieved any tangible progress.
Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that President Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister in the caretaker government Gebran Bassil were insisting on guarantying the vetoing third in their governmental share. However, presidential sources denied these reports, stressing that Aoun was working to facilitate the mission of Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri in forming the new government with a fair representation of all the parties.
Aoun and Hariri met at the Baabda Palace on Thursday to discuss ongoing efforts to form the new government.
“The government will include 30 ministers,” Hariri told reporters, stressing that some issues still need to be addressed carefully, but “we will certainly reach a solution.”
“The government must be formed as soon as possible. There are things we could not resolve, but we are close to reaching solutions, and everyone is cooperating in this regard,” he added.
Meanwhile, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Druze knot would be soon resolved by giving the three Druze seats to the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and putting MP Talal Arslan, an ally of the Free Patriotic Movement, outside the ministerial structure.
“The new government formation is stalled by President Aoun, who rejects any formula that does not give him with the Free Patriotic Movement, the blocking third,” the sources said, adding that the president “wants 11 ministers for him and the FPM, three for the Lebanese Forces and one minister for Al-Marada, headed by Suleiman Franjieh. Any other formula is rejected.”
However, presidential sources denied talks on “the insistence of President Michel Aoun on the blocking third.”
“President Aoun’s position has been announced since the first day of the consultations when he said that he wanted a government in which everyone will be represented according to the size of the parliamentary blocs,” they said.
