Deliberations continue as Hariri seeks breakthrough
Saudi king’s visit to Damascus could resolve stalemate
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Tuesday pursued parliamentary consultations aimed at breaking the three-month cabinet deadlock, while media reports said Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz would visit Syria by next Tuesday – a move that could influence the stalemated government-formation talks.
Hariri plans two more days of deliberations with parliamentary blocs. He will hold a second round of discussions Wednesday with the Liberation and Development bloc and the Phalange Party, and he will meet the Reform and Change bloc and the Lebanese Forces (LF) Thursday.
Hariri met Tuesday with a delegation of the Syrian Nationalist Socialist Party, the “Free Decision” bloc including MPs Michel Pharaon, Nadim Gemayel, Jean Oghassapian and Serge Tor Sarkissian, as well as March 14 MPs Robert Fadel, Nayla Tueni and head of the Free Nationalist Party MP Dory Chamoun.
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun downplayed the positive impact of any Syrian-Saudi rapprochement with regard to the cabinet-formation, as he stood by his party’s demands.
Aoun on Tuesday criticized the description of parliamentary consultations as non-binding, while he stressed that Hariri alone opposed the allotment of ministerial portfolios to candidates who lost in the June general elections.
“The consultations are partially negotiations that lead to an understanding or disagreement; thus if we do not reach an accord over the government, that implies a unilateral decision by one party to form a cabinet which does not reflect national unity,” Aoun said.
Aoun said he did not oppose Hariri’s nomination of March 14 candidates who lost in the June vote, adding that an agreement over the cabinet necessitated the acknowledgement of constitutional norms and conventions.
Addressing the meeting between Assad and Abdullah in Saudi Arabia last week, Aoun said talks between the two leaders would not remove either the domestic or foreign obstacles to cabinet formation.
“Foreign complications can be traced back to a faraway source,” the FPM leader said, adding that the real issue lay in attempts to “naturalize Palestinian refugees and the refusal to acknowledge Palestinians’ right of return.”
Aoun also stressed that he did not provoke the issue of the Telecommunications Ministry, adding that his stances were unambiguous and matched those of President Michel Sleiman.
“Whoever provoked the problem should pay the price,” Aoun said, a reference to the ongoing debate over the Telecommunications Ministry.
Aoun demands that his son-in-law, caretaker Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil, be reappointed for a second term, while Hariri has rejected on several occasions the assignment of seats to candidates who lost in the polls.
Bassil, who ran for one of two seats in his hometown Batroun, lost to independent MP Boutros Harb and LF MP Antoine Zahra.
Contradicting Aoun, Future Movement MP Mohammad Hajjar said on Tuesday that, according to conventions implemented prior to and after the Taif Accord, unsuccessful candidates were not given seats in the cabinet, at least in the first government to be formed following the elections.
“Aoun was one of the most aggressive figures to reject the appointment of unsuccessful candidates when he rejected the appointment of Nassib Lahoud as minister,” Hajjar said.
Lahoud ran for a seat in the Metn district but lost the elections to FPM candidates.
“How does a candidate who lost the people’s confidence, demand later to represent them in the government?” Hajjar added.
Meanwhile, the debate over LF leader Samir Geagea’s Saturday speech remained heated, as Future Movement figures defended his statements while FPM officials accused majority leaders of playing roles to worsen the cabinet crisis.
In the first response from a Future Movement official to Hizbullah’s criticism that Geagea was attempting to set a trap for Hariri, Hajjar said Geagea’s speech was characterized by openness toward the nation. “His speech moved beyond sectarian and religious tensions to national interests,” Hajjar added.
Geagea called on Sleiman and Hariri to form a majority cabinet if the opposition did not relinquish its conditions.
Hajjar added that Hizbullah MP Nawaf Moussawi’s claim that Geagea exploited the Sunni community was unfounded and aimed to score points in domestic politics.
On Sunday, Moussawi had slammed Geagea, accusing him of attempting to exploit Hariri and the Sunni majority to reap Christian representation in the cabinet at the expense of the FPM.
“Talk about exploiting the Sunni community is misplaced, as no one can take cover behind the Sunni faction because the community’s representatives maintain unified stances,” Hajjar added.
Meanwhile, FPM MP Nabil Nicolas accused some parties of not acknowledging the opposition’s right to partnership, saying there was no problem if Hariri stepped down for a second time. “Our bloc calls for true and effective participation,” he added.
Nicolas also slammed Geagea’s speech, saying it signaled escalation in political stances, and adding that Geagea was playing the role of the March 14 extremist to hamper cabinet formation.
“Geagea’s speech reminds us of wartime, but we will not be drawn to respond to provocations,” Nicolas said, adding that “the majority’s silence implied its embrace of Geagea’s speech and thus a blow to consensus.”
Meanwhile, Moussawi voiced hope Tuesday that negotiations would help eliminate obstacles in order to reach an agreement over a cabinet which reflects Lebanon’s diversity and unity.
Moussawi said the opposition made essential compromises that led to consensus over the 15-10-5 formula, which should serve as the launching pad to conclude cabinet deliberations.
“The opposition did and still supports dialogue based on the Constitution and the representational size of political parties,” Moussawi added.
Separately, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said on Tuesday following his return from Rome that Hariri’s success to form a cabinet would be a success for Lebanon.
Sfeir voiced support for the president’s latest stances. “We agree with whatever the president says,” he added.
Sleiman told pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that Syria was not interfering in the cabinet formation, adding that disagreement on the distribution of portfolios was delaying the formation process.
Sleiman also stressed that the Constitution did not oppose the appointment as ministers of candidates who lost in the elections, adding that several precedents existed in the past.
On Tuesday, the president discussed at Baabda presidential palace with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri the latest political developments as well as Lebanon’s participation in the UN General Assembly in New York; Sleiman also held talks with Swiss Senate Speaker Alain Peerset.
In other news, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem was scheduled to hold talks with French Minister Bernard Kouchner in Paris late on Tuesday night.