Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam resumes this week his consultations in earnest on a new Cabinet amid signs the rival parties stood firm on their conflicting stances, dashing hopes for a swift formation of the government.
The 2-month-old Cabinet deadlock coincides with expectations that the Constitutional Council will not be able to meet this week for lack of quorum to decide on petitions challenging the extension of Parliament’s mandate.
Salam has suspended his efforts to form a new Cabinet, while waiting for the outcome of the Constitutional Council’s decision on the challenges filed earlier this month by President Michel Sleiman and MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc against the extension of Parliament’s four-year mandate, which expires June 20.
The half-Muslim, half-Christian 10-member council, which failed to meet twice last week for lack for quorum after its two Shiite members and a Druze member did not show up, plans to meet Tuesday and Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to decide on the challenges.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said if no decision was issued this week by the Constitutional Council on the challenges, the 17-month extension of Parliament’s mandate would go into effect.
“After that date [June 20], the Interior Ministry will issue a decision for those who want to withdraw from the elections to retrieve their money,” Charbel told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
“There should be understanding on the Cabinet formation to rescue the country from the crisis through which we are passing,” he said.
Political sources said efforts were underway to secure a quorum for the Constitutional Council’s meeting Tuesday with the presence of all its members, including the two Shiite judges and the Druze judge, but with one of the five Christian members joining the three judges in rejecting the challenges.Later, the 10 members would attend a salvation meeting of the Constitutional Council likely Thursday that would reject the challenges, the sources said. They added that rejection of the challenges would be coupled with a recommendation to reduce the 17-month extension to eight months.
Salam held a series of talks with politicians on the Cabinet formation during the weekend, including caretaker Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide, and former Minister Tony Karam from the Lebanese Forces.
Salam had earlier met with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt and caretaker Social Minister Wael Abu Faour to discuss the Cabinet formation efforts. Sleiman, Salam and Jumblatt are viewed as centrists.
A source close to Salam said the premier-designate was still holding on to a 24-member Cabinet lineup, divided equally between figures acceptable to the March 8 and March 14 parties and centrists.
While the rival factions remained split over the shape, makeup and role of the new government, the formation process has been further complicated by Hezbollah’s involvement in the war in Syria. Some March 14 politicians have said it was impossible for Hezbollah to join any new Cabinet before it withdrew its fighters.
Hezbollah has warned against attempts to exclude it from the new Cabinet, saying that conditions set by March 14 politicians over the government formation could destabilize the country.
Hezbollah MPs again rejected March 14 conditions for its participation in the new government. “No one can negotiate with us [on Cabinet participation] through a high voice,” Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah told a ceremony in the southern village of Mayfadoun to mark one week since the death of a Hezbollah fighter killed in battle in Syria. “We are the ones who decide on the nature of our representation in this government. We do not accept anyone to impose conditions on us.”
He reiterated Hezbollah’s stance for each party to be represented in the new government according to its size in Parliament. “This is the normal and necessary gateway for the formation of a national unity government capable of rescuing the country,” Fadlallah said.
MP Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s bloc in Parliament, accused the March 14 coalition of pushing the country toward danger.
“There is a possibility for meeting together if intentions are good. But it seems that they [March 14] have taken a [sectarian] incitement approach which poses a threat to the country,” Raad told a memorial service in the southern town of Dowair. “They are the ones taking the country into danger.” – Additional reporting by Antoine Ghattas Saab
by: Hussein Dakroub
