BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariris optimism about breaking the weekslong Cabinet deadlock soon has been dampened by a counter-proposal presented by President Michel Aoun to Hariris draft Cabinet lineup, political sources said Thursday.

The unexpected development threatened to dash hopes for the formation of Hariris proposed 18-member Cabinet of nonpartisan specialists desperately awaited by the Lebanese and the international community to enact reforms and rescue Lebanons crumbling economy.

President Aouns counter-proposal to Hariris draft Cabinet lineup has shattered hopes for resolving the Cabinet crisis soon and cast gloom over the entire Cabinet formation process, a political source familiar with the matter told The Daily Star.

The source said that shortly after Hariri Wednesday presented Aoun with a complete Cabinet lineup of 18 ministers of specialists, Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Gebran Bassil, the presidents son-in-law, intervened and voiced his rejection of the proposed lineup.

Bassil, who heads the FPMs Strong Lebanon bloc, the largest in Parliament with 24 MPs, had been accused in the past of delaying Cabinet formation for months with his insistence on key ministerial portfolios being allotted to his bloc.

The rejection of Hariris proposed Cabinet lineup was reflected in the statement issued by the presidency Wednesday night, nearly two hours after the premier-designate left Baabda Palace after submitting his first Cabinet lineup since he was designated to form a new government on Oct. 22.

After receiving from Hariri his complete Cabinet lineup, the presidencys statement said, President Aoun handed the prime minister-designate a complete Cabinet proposal containing a distribution of portfolios on the basis of clear principles.

The president agreed with the prime minister-designate to study the presented proposals and continue consultations to deal with the disparity between these proposals, the statement added.

Asked whether the Cabinet formation process returned to square one following Aouns counter-proposal, the same source said: Hariri is waiting for Aouns response to his draft Cabinet lineup to determine whether there is an intention to obstruct the Cabinet formation before deciding on the next step.

After presenting his Cabinet lineup to Aoun, Hariri sounded optimistic about forming a new government soon to deliver reforms and halt Lebanons economic collapse.

I have high hopes that we will be able to form a government quickly to halt the economic collapse and the suffering of the Lebanese, rebuild Beirut [following the port explosion] and restore confidence and hope to the Lebanese by enacting the reforms agreed upon within the French initiative, Hariri told reporters after meeting with Aoun.

Wednesdays was the second meeting this week between Aoun and Hariri following a three-week standstill in the Cabinet formation process.

However, it was not immediately known whether Aoun and Hariri managed to narrow differences over the naming of nine Christian ministers in the proposed 18-member Cabinet, a major bone of contention between the two leaders that had delayed the formation.

Aouns counter-proposal sparked a negative backlash from a number of politicians and MPs, some of whom accused the president of violating the Constitution with such a proposal.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt sounded pessimistic about an early solution to the Cabinet formation crisis after Aouns move.

"It appears that the white smoke over the government [formation] will not be released soon as a result of further tests to adopt the best vaccine to deal with the crisis," Joumblatt wrote on Twitter.

In the proposed 18-member Cabinet, the Druze sect would be assigned only one ministry that would go to someone loyal or close to Joumblatt.

Since his designation to form a new government, Hariri has imposed a blanket of secrecy and silence on the Cabinet formation process in a bid to accelerate the process. But former Future MP Mustapha Alloush criticized Aoun for making a counter-proposal.

The Constitution gives President Aoun the right to sign the [Cabinet] formation [decree], but it does not give him the right to impose any Cabinet because the one who forms the Cabinet is the prime minister-designate, not the president, Alloush, a member of the Future Movements Political Bureau, said in a statement.

Hariri proposes a [Cabinet] lineup and discusses it with the president, who must not propose a counter-lineup, he added.

Alloush said Hariri did not want with his proposed Cabinet lineup to challenge or put President Michel Aoun in the position of vanquished.

MP Anwar Khalil, who belongs to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berris bloc, accused Aoun of violating the Constitution with his counter-Cabinet proposal.

Again, President Michel Aoun violated the Constitution in a flagrant manner when he handed Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri a fully fledged Cabinet proposal, while Article 64 in the Constitution vests the prime minister-designate with forming a Cabinet and the president signs the formation decree, Khalil wrote on Twitter.

MP Bilal Abdullah from the PSPs parliamentary Democratic bloc also criticized Aouns proposal. What happened yesterday [Wednesday] was not surprising. It is a continuation which this [Aouns] presidency has been following by transcending the Taif [Accord], creating new norms, rejecting all attempts to rescue the country and thwarting any initiative, whether it is French or not, Abdullah said in a TV interview.

Hezbollahs parliamentary Loyalty to the Resistance bloc underlined the need for forming a government capable of tackling the countrys multiple crises.

Priority that should be at the top of concerns of all the Lebanese today is the formation of a government capable of fixing the deteriorating situation in most of the states structures and presenting a national performance that will restore security and stability and constitute a cornerstone to rectify the financial, monetary, economic and administrative situation in the country, the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by MP Mohammad Raad.,

Backed by France and regional powers, Hariri is scrambling to form an 18-member Cabinet of nonpartisan experts to deliver urgent reforms ahead of a new visit to Lebanon by French President Emmanuel Macron later this month, a political source said Tuesday.

Macron is scheduled to visit Beirut on Dec. 21, marking his third trip to the crises-stricken country since the massive Aug. 4 blast that devastated Beiruts port and left large areas of the capital in ruins, in the biggest explosion in Lebanons history. Macron was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut two days after the port disaster.

In addition to inspecting French troops serving with the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, Macron was expected to meet again with Lebanons rival political leaders to press them to agree on the swift formation of a mission government to enact reforms needed to unlock foreign financial aid that would help revive the collapsing economy, saddled with a soaring public debt of over $90 billion.

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