Salam Says Hizbullah Remarks Changed Course in Cabinet Formation Consultations

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam denied that he has reached a dead-end and revealed that the March 14 alliance had been mulling to accept a cabinet formula in which it would get veto power along with the March 8 coalition but reversed its decision after fiery statements made by Hizbullah officials.

In remarks to As Safir daily published on Saturday, Salam said a proposal made by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to give 9 ministers to March 14, another 9 to March 8 and 6 ministers to centrists in the new cabinet was feasible for March 14.

But the alliance, which prefers giving 8 ministers to each of the three camps, went back to conditioning the withdrawal of Hizbullah from Syria and the implementation of the Baabda Declaration in the negotiations to form the government.

The move came after Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad made fiery statements against the alliance.

Salam quoted al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri as saying that Nasrallah tried to abolish March 14 in his latest speech.

The PM-designate has lately met Hariri in Paris. He told As Safir that the former premier “has expressed readiness to take any step that would facilitate the formation of the cabinet.”

Both Hariri and al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora had “unconditional” support for him, he said.

Salam also denied that Hariri has asked him to form a “fait accompli” government, saying his last option “would be based on the accumulation of months after the nomination.”

This timeframe has given him enough info to resort to as a last chance, he said without giving further details.

But Salam told As Safir that his cabinet formation efforts required toning down the political rhetoric and limiting the conditions that have prevented him from assembling the government since his nomination in April.