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BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is putting along with President Michel Aoun the final touches to a draft Cabinet lineup in hopes of announcing the government formation over the weekend or early next week, a political source familiar with the process said Thursday.
Optimism still reigns about an imminent formation of a new Cabinet of specialists. After resolving the issue of rotation of key ministries, the president and the premier-designate, building on the rapid progress that has been made in the Cabinet formation process, are working to distribute the sovereign and other ministerial portfolios among the various sects, the source told The Daily Star.
The source said that the final stage before announcing the Cabinet formation was to add the names of potential ministers to their apportioned ministries.
Given the prevailing positive atmosphere and barring any emergency development that could delay the formation, a new Cabinet of specialists who do not belong to political parties could be announced either at the weekend or early next week, the source added.
The issue of rotating the sectarian leadership of the three remaining so-called sovereign ministries Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs has been settled, the source said.
According to the source, the Interior Ministry, traditionally held by a Sunni belonging to Hariris Future Movement, would now be allocated to a Maronite Christian, who is loyal to Aoun.
In return for ceding the Interior Ministry, the Sunni sect will be allotted the Foreign Ministry now controlled by a Maronite, the source said, adding that the Defense portfolio, usually held by a Greek Orthodox, would go to the same sect.
The issue of the Finance Ministry, one of the four sovereign ministries, had been settled after Hariri earlier said he agreed to assign it to the Shiite sect only for one time a key demand of the two main Shiite groups, the Amal Movement and Hezbollah.
Under the proposed rotation, the Free Patriotic Movements Strong Lebanon bloc, the largest Christian bloc in Parliament headed by MP Gebran Bassil, was expected to lose control of the Energy Ministry, which has been held by FPM ministers for more than 10 years. Media reports said the Energy portfolio might be assigned to an Armenian loyal to the FPM.
The same source said Aoun and Hariri had so far agreed on an 18-member Cabinet nine Christians and nine Muslims including a ministerial portfolio for the Druze sect.
This was viewed as a compromise between Hariris call for a small Cabinet of 14 experts and Aouns push, backed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah, for a 20-member Cabinet, to deliver urgent reforms badly needed to unlock promised international aid to the country wrestling with an economic meltdown and the grave consequences of last months deadly explosion that devastated Beirut Port and left swaths of the capital in ruins.
The Aug. 4 blast, the biggest in Lebanons history and caused by the detonation of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrates, killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people homeless and caused losses worth billions of dollars.
A week since his designation as prime minister, Hariri, backed by France and regional powers, has met four times with Aoun, in a move reflecting the premier-designates determination to accelerate the formation of a new government made up of experts.
A source at Baabda Palace Thursday denied reports that Hariri presented Aoun with a draft Cabinet lineup during their meeting Wednesday.
The two leaders have imposed a shroud of secrecy on the Cabinet formation efforts. Hariri Thursday declined to answer reporters questions on the Cabinet formation process after meeting with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian at Dar al-Fatwa to congratulate him on the Prophet Mohammads birthday.
A statement released by Hariris media office denied as inaccurate and untrue reports circulated by media outlets and social media on the Cabinet formation process.
The only and true atmosphere reflected by the president and the premier-designate is the atmosphere of progress in the Cabinet formation process in a climate of understanding and positivity, the statement said.
Berri also sounded optimistic about the Cabinet formation, saying a new government may see the light of day within four or five days if the current positive atmosphere persisted.
There are no substantial obstacles in the Cabinet formation process ... We have reached the third stage which is to add the names [of potential ministers] to the apportioned ministries, Berris media adviser Ali Hamdan said in a TV interview Thursday.
The new government would be tasked with implementing a string of structural economic and administrative reforms outlined in the French initiative designed to lift the crises-hit country out of its catastrophic economic and financial crunch, the worst since the 1975-90 Civil War.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is set to touch on local and regional political developments, including the Cabinet formation process, in a televised speech at 8:30 p.m. Friday on the occasion of the prophets birthday.
Hezbollah officials have expressed the Iran-backed partys readiness to facilitate the government formation. Under the rotation, the group has offered to give up the Health Ministry, which is coveted by the Progressive Socialist Party headed by Walid Joumblatt, in return for being allocated the Education Ministry or the Public Works Ministry.
Lebanon has been left without a fully functioning government since caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab submitted his Cabinets resignation on Aug. 10 over the port blast.
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