Suleiman to Shift Focus to Portfolios, Candidates
President Michel Suleiman will start this week discussions on cabinet portfolios and ministerial candidates, shifting focus away from the government”s shape in an attempt to resolve the deadlocked formation process, the local press reported Sunday.
The Lebanese daily An Nahar said that Suleiman”s new approach aims to "show once and for all whether the opposition”s insistence on veto power was a mere media maneuver to baffle premier-designate Saad Hariri or was a genuine attempt to facilitate the formation process."
It said that the fact that Saudi-Syrian contacts "were still active was an indication that an expected bilateral summit could eventually turn into a tripartite meeting that includes Suleiman."
"Suleiman”s participation in such a summit will not take place before the formation of a government in order for the shape-up not to be seen as the outcome of external influence," the paper quoted sources as saying.
On Saturday, Speaker Nabih Berri and Hariri discussed, in a telephone call, the formation process, An Nahar reported.
For its part, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat said the focus this week will shift from deliberations on a government formula to cabinet portfolios and ministerial candidates. "The shift will be a primary test to the teams” capacity to form a government in the next few days, without necessarily meaning that deliberations will not extend till next month," it said.
According to informed sources, one formula under discussion gives the opposition ten ministers, including five Shiites, with Suleiman picking a neutral candidate as the sixth Shiite minister. The proposal will be agreed on in a meeting between Suleiman and Hizbullah expected to take place in the next few hours.