Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri returned to Beirut on Monday to continue his intensive meetings before the expiry of the deadline he set for the formation of the new government.
Hariri refused to reveal his other options in the event of the failure of his endeavor, rejecting any talks about the possibility to convene the caretaker government to approve the general budget.
Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the premier-designate contacted Speaker Nabih Berri to update him on his meetings in Paris with caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. They added that he would also meet with President Michel Aoun.
The country will either see the formation of a government by the end of the week or will face the unknown, according to the sources who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat.
They noted in this regard that differences over the distribution of ministerial portfolios were no longer a major obstacle hindering a solution to the issue; but rather the node represented in the share of the pro-Hezbollah Sunni deputies, known as the March 8 Sunni Consultative Meeting.
According to the sources, the current dilemma is to find a minister who can represent Hezbollah’s Sunni allies and be part of Aoun’s share, without provoking any party. They said that Aoun’s team was not launching any initiatives to resolve this matter. Hezbollah bloc MP Nawaf al-Mousawi blamed Hariri for “excluding the Lebanese, who voted for a group of deputies,” adding that the premier-designate has failed to “summarize the results of parliamentary elections in a government that represents all those who were chosen by the people.”
“Why should there be a diversity of representation among Christians, Shiites and Druze, and not among the Sunnis?”, he asked, stressing that it was normal for the Consultative Meeting to be represented in the government.
