Time is right to form the Cabinet
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said in an interview with Al-Markaziya news agency on Wednesday that “it is time,” after 10 weeks of deliberations, for President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri “to form the new cabinet according to what they believe is suitable, but without excluding any party… By now, the positions of all parties should be clear.”
Geagea also said that he refrained from issuing any statement previously, because things were “unclear,” a reference to the domestic and regional political scenes.
He added that his party is not discussing the distribution of portfolios or its prospective ministers, stressing that the LF’s political weight is known and saying that Christians within the March 14 alliance can decide on their ministerial representation “in a five-minute meeting.”
Geagea commented on the majority’s meeting held on Monday, saying that “we faced immense obstacles,” yet “we held the meeting.”
He also said that a Hezbollah delegation visited Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh on the eve of his meeting with PM-designate Hariri in Baabda to voice Hezbollah’s support for Aoun and “to motivate him not to give up” on his demands, which are to reappoint Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil and to be granted the Interior Ministry.
On his relations with other party leaders, Geagea said that his relationship with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt is “strictly professional,” stressing that the Mountain Reconciliation is still intact.
Geagea also said that he has a “natural” relationship with Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel, adding that he does not doubt the Kataeb’s political position, which he said is unrelated to the party’s absence from the March 14 General Secretariat’s meetings.
Geagea refused to comment on former head of the General Security Directorate General Jamil As-Sayyed’s statements, saying that the latter “was only cursing and issuing accusations in all directions.”