| 29 Sep 2009 |
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Hariri to hold another round of FPM negotiations
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29 September 2009
BEIRUT: No progress was made on cabinet formation front on Monday, as opposition and majority groups clung to their stances as Premier-designate Saad Hariri resumed his deliberations with parliamentary blocs.
As part of his efforts to break the cabinet deadlock, Hariri is expected to hold another round of deliberations with a delegation of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) headed by MP Michel Aoun on Thursday as well as the Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Phalange Party.
Hariri met at Parliament on Monday with the Armenian Tashnaq party bloc, al-Jamaa al-Islamyia MP Imad Hout and independent MP Boutros Harb.
After the meeting, the Tashnaq party stressed its support for Hariri as well as the necessity to form a national-unity cabinet that guarantees partnership given the upcoming challenges.
Meanwhile, opposition parties including Hizbullah and Amal Movement reiterated their support for the resumption of negotiations over the cabinet based on the 15-10-5 formula.
Conversely, the LF stressed Monday that the legitimacy of any cabinet should be evaluated according to the Constitution, a reference to Hizbullah’s criticism of LF head Samir Geagea’s call to form a majority cabinet.
Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc chief MP Mohammad Raad stressed on Monday that the foundations of a national-unity cabinet were in place and awaited the premier-designate to coordinate the distribution of portfolios and candidates.
“The fundamentals of a national-unity cabinet are available and only lack the premier-designate’s will to creatively manage the distribution of portfolios and names to bring to light a government that would save Lebanon ahead of upcoming challenges,” Raad said.
Raad reiterated his party’s support for the 15-10-5 formula, adding that given the current domestic challenges and the ongoing Israeli threats, the structure was the best to guarantee national partnership.
Similarly, Amal Movement MP Ali Hassan Khalil called on Monday to form a national unity cabinet based on the 15-10-5 formula, adding that Lebanon should seize the opportunity that emerged as a result of Syrian-Saudi rapprochement.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday that Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel -Aziz received on Sunday an undisclosed invitation from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The agency added that Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal delivered the message to Saudi Information and Culture Minister Abdel-Aziz Khoja.
“The recent inter Arab contacts created a new dynamic; we should seize the opportunity… and take responsibility for the cabinet’s formation rather than toss the burden on foreign powers with regard to details linked to the distribution of portfolios,” Khalil said.
Khalil praised President Michel Sleiman’s insistence to form a national-unity cabinet while he slammed statements by certain political groups contradicting the principles of partnership and coexistence.
Also, Liberation and Development bloc MP Ali Bazzi said Assad’s visit to Saudi Arabia had a positive impact on inter-Arab ties, which reflected positively on Lebanon and the region.
“However, this positive atmosphere does not liberate the Lebanese from their responsibility to work in order to re-establish warm relations among each other,” Bazzi added.
Echoing Geagea, Parliament Deputy Speaker and Future Movement MP Farid Makari called on Sleiman and Hariri to from a cabinet in accordance with constitutional norms if negotiations to reach an agreement over a national-unity government failed.
In a speech on Saturday, Geagea urged Hariri and the president to form a majority cabinet if the opposition does not relinquish its conditions concerning the government.
“The time has come to reach a conclusion; if it turns out that we would hit a deadlock and another round of stalled deliberations, then the premier-designate along with the president should form a cabinet in accordance with constitutional norms in order to keep the country from being a hostage to obstruction,” Makari said.
In response to Hizbullah’s criticism, LF MP Antoine Zahra stressed on Monday that the legitimacy of any government or power in Lebanon should be evaluated based the Constitution and the implementation of its laws.
“Geagea’s statement was an attempt to prevent the ongoing provoked series of crisis for five consecutive years including the obstruction of presidential elections and the cabinet’s formation which threatens to abolish the Constitution and thus Lebanon’s presence and entity,” Zahra added.
LF ally the Phalange Party expressed hope on Monday that the minority transform its talk about the positive atmosphere with regard to the cabinet formation into deeds so as to facilitate the process. Following a meeting of the party’s politburo, the Phalange issued a statement calling on Hariri to form a cabinet that reflects the outcome of the June 7 elections and the Phalange’s true representational size.
The statement also denied that the Phalange bloc tackled during talks with Hariri the expected portfolios to be allotted to the party or the candidates to be nominated.
In other news, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit said in remarks published in Ash-Sharq al-Awsat on Monday that his country supported the designation of Hariri for the post of premier-designate while denying claims saying otherwise.
“Claims that Egypt does not want Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form a cabinet in Lebanon are inaccurate,” Abu al-Gheit said, adding that “we expressed back then our belief that he would face obstacles.”
Abu al-Gheit added that foreign obstacles hampered the formation of the government as he stressed that Saudi Arabia plays a very supportive role while Egypt was keen to see a government formed as soon as possible. The Egyptian foreign minister hinted to a significant Iranian influence in Lebanon, adding that Syria has also historic and strategic interests in Lebanon.
Lebanese regime ‘on its deathbed’ says syrian paper
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s political regime in its current shape is no longer viable, the Syrian state-run newspaper Tishrin reported in remarks published on Monday.
The paper added that the Lebanese regime was on its “deathbed” and needed radical changes to revive it.
“How can we claim that a sectarian regime is a democratic one, if loyalty to religions exceeded loyalty to the nation; thus the country faces a regime crisis rather than a government crisis,” the report said. – The Daily Star
© Copyright The Daily Star 2009.
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