Six independent Sunni deputies raised their rhetoric Thursday after receiving more support from Hezbollah officials, mainly the head of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad.
Despite their increasing pressure to have a representation in the new government, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri remained silent pending developments on an initiative launched by caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil to end the cabinet crisis.
On Thursday, the independent lawmakers renewed their demand to meet with Hariri.
Raad also said a solution for their representation problem is through Hariri’s talks with them.
However, a leading source from Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement told the Central News Agency that the six MPs “will never set foot in the Center House.”
The lawmakers met on Thursday, saying the ministerial portfolio that should be accorded to them, must be chosen in coordination with them.
"The six Sunni MPs will not give up their right to representation (...) they might even step up their position and demand more than just one minister," MP Jihad Samad, one of the deputies, told a local radio station.
Samad hinted that a solution to the cabinet crisis could be reached if Bassil’s Free Patriotic Movement decided to give up one of its shares in the cabinet in favor of the six lawmakers.
But Hariri stressed that he would not change his political position concerning the formation of the government.
“I will not change my position, and these words do not aim to challenge anyone, but result from my absolute belief that the political yelling does not lead anywhere, nor does it solve the problem of electricity or waste, or the demands of the citizens,” the PM-designate said.
