BEIRUT: Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea said Friday that he was doubtful that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri could form a mission government because he is implementing the same, previously failed approach to the Cabinet formation process.

No party has the right to cling to any [ministerial] portfolio because the country has reached the state it is in because of those clinging to their portfolios, Geagea said. The government today is being formed in the same way as the previous governments were formed.

Geagea urged Hariri to push forward with forming a nonpartisan, mission government in an interview with news website Enooma. However, Geagea remained doubtful because the upcoming government will certainly be a government based on shares.

The LF chief stressed that if a mission government was achieved that his party would support its "positive work," adding that if its work is not good, we will oppose it.

There is no problem with a government headed by Saad Hariri, Geagea said, but stressed that we have no confidence in the ruling elite and in the current parliamentary majority.

Hariri was widely expected to meet with President Michel Aoun Thursday to present him with a draft Cabinet lineup, his first since he was designated with the support of 65 MPs to form a new government on Oct. 22.

But the meeting did not materialize, reflecting the difficulties Hariri is facing in reconciling the various blocs conflicting demands for ministerial portfolios in an 18-member Cabinet.

Since his designation last month, Hariri has met six times with Aoun, discussing the size and makeup of a new Cabinet made up of specialists -- who do not belong to political parties -- to deliver reforms in line with the French initiative to save Lebanon from a string of multiple crises.

In their last meeting, held behind-the-scenes at Baabda Palace Monday, Aoun and Hariri agreed on an 18-member Cabinet of specialists and are currently working to distribute ministerial portfolios among the various sects.

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