The relief created in Lebanon after the formation of a new government on Thursday was quickly dispelled by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, who both raised questions about its ability to combat corruption.
Geagea had expressed on Thursday his general dissatisfaction with the cabinet and a number of ministers appointed to their posts.
Jumblat, for his part, said that the “political noose was tightening and we will wage a calm confrontation.”
Newly appointed Industry Minister Wael Abou Faour, a member of the PSP, used more fiery rhetoric to describe the government, saying: “They have planted daggers in the cabinet and we will break them one after the other.”
As the LF declared that it will not allow deals to take place at the country’s expense, new Labor Minister Kamil Abou Suleiman explained that it meant that ministers, not ministries, will be held accountable for their performance.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We will approach cabinet work positively. We realize the difficulty of the economic and social conditions … and we will, therefore, base our decisions away from political alliances.”
LF sources confirmed the minister’s remarks, saying: “We are opening a new chapter in ties with the government.”
“We will remain committed to applying the laws and we will confront anyone who violates them,” they told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“We will also cooperate with those who see eye-to-eye with us and we hope others would have learned from their past experiences,” they added.
PSP Secretary Zafer Nasser, meanwhile, described the cabinet as one that will strike deals, stressing: “We will stand against them and corruption.”
“Deals that led to the formation of the government have started to emerge,” he remarked.
Such an approach does not bode well for the country, he warned, saying that it would negatively impact the implementation of the agreements reached at last year’s CEDRE conference.
Gatherers at the Paris-hosted meeting pledged aid worth $11 billion (9.5 billion euros) to Lebanon, promising to stave off an economic crisis.
Failure to implement reforms that meet the aspirations of the Lebanese people and preserve the country’s resources will ultimately lead to the failure of the CEDRE deals, Nasser said.
Director of the Middle East Institute for Strategic Affairs, Sami Nader, meanwhile said that the government should be dubbed the “CEDRE cabinet”, revealing that it was the product of a French-Iranian agreement.
The cabinet is set to tackle several pending issues, in addition to new ones, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Moreover, he said that the PSP and LF made their negative comments about the government because they were forced to make the greatest sacrifices to ensure that it sees the light after nine months of political wrangling.
