Cabinet Minister Says Hope for New Government Not Looming in Horizon

Contacts between the rival parties is frozen due to the security incidents in the country and the March 14 alliance's insistence for Hizbullah to withdraw from Syria, a minister in the resigned cabinet has said.

An Nahar daily quoted the minister as saying in remarks published Sunday that there was not yet any sign of hope for a solution to the cabinet crisis.

The efforts exerted to form the new government are “complicated” amid Hizbullah's involvement in the civil war in Syria, the minister, who was not identified, said.

“Real contact between the different parties is almost frozen despite some meetings” held between them, the minister told An Nahar.

He said the March 14 request for Hizbullah fighters to pull out of Syria is “righteous” but should be accompanied by a worksheet or a document to reach a certain understanding on it.

The minister ruled out the return of stability to the northern city of Tripoli. But he hoped for security in it “because its residents don't deserve the attack on them and their security.”

Different rounds of clashes between gunmen of rival sects in Tripoli have left hundreds of casualties in the past few years.

The clashes pit gunmen from two impoverished Tripoli neighborhoods against each other, areas that are home to opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Bab al-Tabbaneh district is largely Sunni, like Syria's rebels. The other neighborhood, Jabal Mohsen, mostly has residents of Assad's Alawite sect.

The latest security incident came on Saturday when at least six residents from Jabal Mohsen were wounded when a van carrying eight passengers came under attack by masked gunmen in the area of al-Tabbaneh.