Speaker Nabih Berri will throw his weight behind a fresh bid to form a Cabinet after the Constitutional Council’s failure to meet automatically put the extension of Parliament’s term into effect, political sources said.
Berri, who warned Wednesday against security threats facing Lebanon and urged stepped-up efforts to ward off sectarian violence, said he would resume follow-up on the government formation issue “in the next day or two,” lawmakers quoted him as saying.
Speaking to lawmakers, Berri “expressed concern over attempts at shifting sectarian strife from one area to another.” Lebanon has been gripped by recurrent security incidents linked to the crisis in Syria, most recently clashes Tuesday in the southern city of Sidon by pro- and anti-Hezbollah groups.
Berri “called for redoubling efforts to put an end to such [incidents], which threaten [to destabilize] the country.”
The speaker also said that he would call on the parliamentary subcommittee discussing electoral proposals to resume its discussions in a bid to arrive at an agreement on a new voting system.
He said that the subcommittee would hold extensive meetings within a specific timeframe to achieve its mission.
He did not specify however when he would call for the committee to recommence its work.
Sources close to Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam welcomed Berri’s new attempt, saying that the speaker and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt have been working to mend fences among rival groups concerning the new government.
One source said Salam would also re-launch contacts to form a new government Monday.
“Salam is waiting for the Constitutional Council to hold its last session on Friday and issue an official decision concerning the extension of Parliament’s term, before resume contacts on the government,” the source added.
Salam has suspended his efforts to form a new Cabinet while awaiting the outcome of the 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 Thursday.
Three judges, close to Berri and Jumblatt, have failed to attend the council’s session, preventing a quorum.
The government’s formation has been significantly delayed by the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance’s demand for a national unity Cabinet in which the coalition is granted veto power. Salam and the March 14 alliance have so far rejected the March 8 demand.
Salam said no political group would be granted a blocking third in his government. Salam is seeking a nonpolitical government of “national interest” that would see the rotation of ministerial portfolios between sects.
The Future Movement and Lebanese Forces, both leading parties in the March 14 alliance, have called for the formation of a neutral salvation Cabinet in which political partisans are excluded.
Hezbollah stood firm on its demands, as the party’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem reiterated opposition to Salam’s suggestion of a 24-member Cabinet lineup, divided equally among figures acceptable to the March 8, March 14 and centrists.
“We nominated ... Salam to form a national unity Cabinet and his responsibility is to be fair in the formation and to form [a Cabinet] in line with national unanimity,” Qassem said, adding that such a government could only be formed if ministerial portfolios are distributed according to the respective representation of parties in Parliament.
“We are not a trivial group to accept a marginal share that does not influence [Cabinet] decisions and this is why the 8-8-8 Cabinet proposal is something we totally reject,” he added during a memorial ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The March 8 camp also lashed out on another front, as a Baath Party official accused Sleiman of “high treason” over a memorandum he sent to the United Nations Tuesday which lists violations of Lebanese territories by the warring sides in Syria.
“The filing of a complaint by the president to the [U.N.] Security Council against the Syrian Arab Republic with which we have conventions and treaties of cooperation and coordination is a violation of the Constitution, in particular articles 53, 54 and 65,” Qanso said in a statement.
“The violation is that the president surpassed the [authority of] the Foreign Ministry, the only constitutional channel through which such a complaint can be filed,” said Qanso, an ally of Damascus.
“We will work in accordance with the Constitution and the laws to try the president for high treason,” he added.
Sleiman sent a memorandum to the U.N., through its representative in Lebanon Derek Plumbly, listing violations of Lebanese territories by the warring factions in Syria after apparently losing patience with caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour’s failure to do so.Mansour, who is close to Berri, has come under fire by March 14 politicians in the past for ignoring similar requests from Sleiman for anti-Syria complaints. The minister is scheduled to hold talks with Sleiman at the Baabda Presidential Palace Thursday.
Qanso said the step he intends to take aimed at “ending the series of [treasonous acts] and constant violations of the Constitution.”
