Berri Won”t Give Up Foreign, Health Ministries to Aoun
No decision was taken regarding the issue of names and portfolios during a meeting on Monday between PM-designate Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun as the two sides maintained a wait-and-see attitude, pending the position of other political parties vis-à-vis the issue of exchanging key Cabinet seats.
FPM sources told the daily An-Nahar in remarks published Tuesday that Hariri and Aoun exchanged ideas and discussed proposals, but that nothing has been made final.
Al-Liwaa, however, quoted Parliamentary sources as saying that Hariri and Aoun have agreed to maintain a 30-seat national unity government based on the 15-10-5 formula and to overcome the issue of bringing in election losers.
The sources said the two leaders also agreed that Aoun would sit with Hariri to discuss the names of ministers he wishes to bring to the new government after having picked them.
On the issue of rotation of Cabinet portfolios, Al-Liwaa said recent contacts between the FPM, AMAL and Hizbullah leaderships did not find positive results from Speaker Nabih Berri”s AMAL movement with regards to the possibility of giving Jebran Bassil the foreign or health ministries.