Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
President Michel Aoun will urge the prime minister-designate to meet with six Hezbollah-backed Sunni MPs in a bid to reach a compromise on their representation that will eventually clear the way for a national unity government, political sources said Friday.
This comes amid reports that a key element of Aoun’s initiative, launched earlier this week to resolve the monthslong Cabinet formation crisis, calls for representing the six lawmakers in the next government from the president’s share with a candidate from outside their group.
Aoun’s initiative coincided with a report released this week by Moody’s Investors Service that changed the outlook from stable to negative on the government of Lebanon’s issuer ratings, and affirmed the ratings at B3.
Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil said in a terse statement that Moody’s negative outlook should induce all Lebanese parties to form the Cabinet quickly and proceed with reforms to restore confidence, diminish risks and reduce the budget deficit.
“Aoun’s proposal calls on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to meet with the six Sunni MPs as a sign of recognizing them. This will have to be reciprocated by the six MPs’ agreement to be represented in the next Cabinet by a candidate from outside their group who will be chosen by the president and will be part of his share,” a political source familiar with the formation process told The Daily Star.Aoun met Wednesday with the six MPs after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri and Hariri and a Hezbollah delegation as part of an initiative designed to end the Cabinet gridlock, now in its seventh month.
Aoun’s talks centered on proposals to resolve the issue of representing the six MPs – the last remaining hurdle to the Cabinet formation.
The president’s talks with the Hezbollah delegation were all the more important given the party’s insistence that the six be represented in the new government has blocked the formation.
Hezbollah is withholding the names of its three ministers until the MPs’ demand for representation has been met.
Caretaker Youth and Sports Minister Mohammad Fneish, one of two Hezbollah ministers in the outgoing Cabinet, said the key to resolving the problem is with Hariri accepting to meet with the MPs.
“The correct way to resolve the problem is for the prime minister-designate to meet with the six MPs to discuss their demand for representation. Hezbollah will accept any formula accepted by the six MPs for their representation in the new government,” Fneish told The Daily Star. “Once this is done, Hezbollah will deliver the names of its three ministers,” he added.
Asked if he shared Hariri’s optimism that the Cabinet would be formed before the end of the year, Fneish, who is widely tipped to join the next government, said: “We hope to have a new Cabinet before the end of the year.”
During his visit to London to attend the Lebanese-U.K. Business and Investment Forum, Hariri said Thursday that the government “hopefully will be formed before the end of the year. … Most of the obstacles are resolved – there is still one obstacle, and I think we will solve it soon.”
Hariri has rejected the MPs’ demand for representation and also rebuffed their request to meet with him to discuss the issue.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said after meeting with Aoun that the president was waiting for Hariri to return to Beirut to brief him on the outcome of his consultations with the main political parties and discuss proposals to break the impasse.
Hariri is due to return to Beirut over the weekend.
“The president cannot reach solutions [to the crisis] without the presence of the prime minister-designate and without all the political groups and components in Lebanon shouldering their responsibilities,” Rai told reporters.
Rai urged all sides to take responsibility for their role in forming a government and warned against further delay.
“Stubbornness regarding [forming] the government is unacceptable,” he said. “It is not enough for someone to come to the president and tell him, ‘This is what I have [to say].’ This is not dialogue,” Rai said.
He implicitly criticized the parties that have refused to budge from their positions. “When each side stands firm on its position and maintains its demand, what will then happen to the people, the state institutions, the collapsing economy and the financial risks?” the patriarch asked.
Meanwhile, a senior Future Movement official praised Aoun’s initiative, but said Hariri would not bow to pressure from Hezbollah and the six MPs.
“Prime Minister Hariri is being asked to submit to the will of Hezbollah and the parliamentary group [six MPs] that represents Hezbollah.
“This is not going to happen, not today, not tomorrow and not in 100 years,” Ahmad Hariri, secretary-general of the Future Movement, said in a speech at the launch of the media “Spot News” network in the northern city of Tripoli. He said Hezbollah had “fabricated the problem and they should solve it,” adding that the premier-designate would not go along with a government whose characteristics were set by Hezbollah.
“[Hariri’s] government [lineup] is ready and it is known to the president and the Parliament speaker and to all those concerned. Any other rhetoric is useless,” Ahmad Hariri said.
“President Aoun is working to find a solution. We stand on his side and with him to reach a government. We don’t mind a 30- or 24- or 18-member Cabinet,” he added.
The six MPs, however, stood firm on their demand to be represented in the next Cabinet by one of their group.
“The idea of representing the Consultative Gathering [six MPs] by someone from outside it is stillborn and is not subject to debate,” Jihad al-Samad, one of the six MPs, told Al-Nour radio station.
“Our position is clear. We will not accept anyone from outside the Gathering to be named as a minister.”
But Future MP Dima Jamali said Hariri would not accept any of the six MPs to be named as a minister. Speaking to the Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3), she referred to the possibility of a proposal for naming a compromise Sunni candidate or forming an 18-member Cabinet.
