Karami AfterTalks with Hariri: All are Putting Sticks in the Wheel of Cabinet Formation
Contacts made by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri with Opposition leaders, the first from outside the Opposition triangle – Hizbullah, AMAL and the Free Patriotic Movement — broke the deadlock over Cabinet formation.
Hariri has met with Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan whose sources denied that the Sports and Youth Minister has delivered any letter from any political side.
The sources said the Hariri-Arslan meeting at Center House on Wednesday was agreed upon in advance and before Arslan”s visit to FPM leader Michel Aoun on Tuesday.
Another Arslan source told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that it was "time to end the boycott and resume dialogue."
He said Arslan accepted Hariri”s invitation regardless of the political bickering between Aoun and the PM-designate.
The source acknowledged that Arslan, together with leadership and supporters, "feels bitter" about the way he was treated with regards to the Cabinet lineup.
Hariri also met late Wednesday with Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel.
He later discussed over the phone the political situation and obstacles facing government formation with former Prime Minister Omar Karami.
As-Safir newspaper said the Hariri-Karami talks focused on the powers of the prime minister in the wake of Aoun”s latest remarks. It said Hariri believed that Aoun”s demands "hurt the premier-designate and his role" in achieving a government of national unity.
Karami, for his part, said he believed Aoun”s comments were provocation of Sunnis.
"Aoun”s statement about the presence of only one president for the state which is the president of the republic provokes Sunnis in Lebanon," Karami said in remarks published by As-Safir on Thursday.
Former Premier Karami met Hariri over lunch at the Center House on Thursday, following a meeting attended by Karami”s son Faysal and his office director Othman Majzoub as well as Hariri”s political consultant Hani Hammoud. The discussion revolved mainly around the ongoing obstruction facing the Cabinet lineup.
Following his talks with PM-designate Hariri, Karami reiterated his stance related to "the daily violations of the Taef agreement," confirming "the greatest of all is what occurred in Doha." He commented on the ongoing circumstances surrounding the Cabinet formation as being a viscious circle of "irregularities and violations."
According to the Constitution, "each political party has the right to suggest the names of its ministers," Karami stressed, adding, however, that "the PM-designate has the right either to take into consideration those names or not." He concluded saying that "the PM-designate is the one who is entitled to decide ministers names as well as their portfolios."
Regarding those who are causing the obstruction of the Cabinet lineup, "all are," Karami told reporters.