Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
All seems to be set for the announcement of a new national unity Cabinet before Christmas after the last remaining obstacle to the formation has been overcome, official sources said Tuesday.
This comes after General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim held what he called “successful” talks with a group of Hezbollah-backed Sunni MPs whose demand for representation has held up the Cabinet formation since late October.
“It’s over. We can say that President Michel Aoun’s initiative to resolve the problem of representing the six Sunni MPs has been successful,” a source at Baabda Palace told The Daily Star. “The new Cabinet could be announced either at the weekend or early next week after all hurdles have been resolved.”
Meanwhile, a State Department official told Reuters that the U.S. hopes the next government will build “a stable and secure Lebanon that is committed to peace, responsive to the needs of the Lebanese people and working with the United States on areas of mutual interest.” But the official also said the U.S. has “deep concerns” over Hezbollah’s growing political power in the country and efforts by its allies to give it “top cover and a veneer of legitimacy.”
Shortly after Ibrahim’s talks with the Sunni MPs from outside the Future Movement, the General Security chief met separately with Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to brief them on the outcome of his discussions. His flurry of activity was in line with an initiative Aoun launched last week in an effort to resolve the issue of representing the six MPs in the next government.
A key element of Aoun’s plan calls for representing them from the president’s share with a candidate from outside their group, rather than one of the six lawmakers themselves, as they had previously demanded. “The next step is now for the six Sunni MPs to give the names of their candidates for the government to President Aoun, who will choose one of them,” the Baabda source said. They added that under the provisions of the initiative, the MPs would later meet with Hariri either at Baabda Palace or at the premier-designate’s Downtown residence, in a move recognizing their representation in the new Cabinet.
Although the six MPs’ candidate would represent their group, known as the “Consultative Gathering,” the source confirmed the group’s minister would be part of the president’s share.
All the parties concerned have made concessions: Aoun accepted that the Sunni MPs’ minister would be part of his share; Hezbollah pushed the six MPs to display flexibility; Hariri accepted the MPs’ representation; and the lawmakers agreed to be represented by someone from outside their group.
Hezbollah has blocked the Cabinet formation by refusing to provide the names of its three ministers until the six MPs’ demand has been met.
The Daily Star obtained the details of the deal – a five-point plan – reached during Ibrahim’s talks with five of the MPs at the residence of lawmaker Abdel-Rahim Mrad. Faisal Karami, one of the six, was absent because he is out of the country. The deal began with Aoun allowing a minister from his share to represent the MPs. The remaining four steps are Hariri’s approval of Aoun’s offer, the Sunni MPs’ proposal of candidates from outside of their group, a meeting between Hariri and the six MPs, and finally, Hariri’s acknowledgement of the MPs’ representation and choosing with Aoun one of the names the MPs put forward.
“All the concerned parties have made concessions,” caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, said after the weekly meeting of the FPM’s parliamentary Strong Lebanon bloc.
He added that no groups have been excluded from the proposed solution to the 7-month-old deadlock, and that the government’s productivity would make up for the wasted time.
Ibrahim said his meeting with the five MPs was part of the initiative that Aoun tasked him to implement. “All individual meetings with the ‘Consultative Gathering,’ and today’s collective meeting, were crowned with success. I can assure you that things are going on the right track,” Ibrahim told reporters after the meeting.
“God willing, if things are left without obstacles, and I don’t expect any obstacle, the government will see the daylight soon. … This meeting is a stop on the road to implementing [Aoun’s] initiative,” he added.
“The Lebanese have waited long and we are at the last eleventh hour,” the General Security chief said, adding that he and the five MPs were in direct contact with Karami during the meeting to get his approval.
“Everyone made sacrifices for the sake of Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Ibrahim added.
“The Lebanese will hear good news in the coming few days. All obstacles have been resolved and we will have a representative in the government,” Mrad said after the meeting.
Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a key political aide to Speaker Nabih Berri, told Reuters: “We are in the final stage. Most probably the Cabinet will be formed before the Christmas holiday.”
The Central News Agency quoted sources close to Hezbollah as saying: “The [new] Cabinet is a few meters away from its birth and its decrees might be issued in the next two days after major hurdles have been eliminated.”
The Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc commended Aoun’s initiative, describing it as the last chance to end the Cabinet gridlock.
“The bloc believes that the efforts of the president constitute the last chance to break the cycle of political conditions, and its success must complete the results reached by Prime Minister Saad Hariri before the emergence of the last hurdle,” a statement issued after the bloc’s weekly meeting chaired by MP Bahia Hariri said.
“Betting on forming the government before the holidays is now possible. It should be urgent in light of the economic, financial and developmental challenges on the agenda of the executive power and other institutions concerned with launching legislative reform and administrative workshops and to stop the policies of wasting time,” it added.
Warning of dire economic and financial repercussions caused by the delay in the government formation, the bloc said: “Forming the government is a must and a national responsibility, and the efforts exerted by the president must be translated into practical steps that end with issuing the decrees as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, the European Union welcomed efforts toward forming a new government. EU Ambassador Christina Lassen met with Hariri Tuesday evening, discussing the progress. “The European Union welcomes all efforts towards forming a government at the very soonest,” Lassen said, expressing hope “that all state institutions will function properly in 2019 for the benefit of Lebanon and the Lebanese people.”