Salam Meets Bassil, Offers FPM '2 Portfolios, Including Foreign Affairs'

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam on Sunday held talks with Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and Hizbullah secretary-general's political assistant Hussein Khalil as part of consultations aimed at resolving the cabinet formation deadlock.

The PM-designate held separate talks with Khalil and Bassil at his Musaitbeh residence before heading to Ain al-Tineh for talks with Berri.

During his meeting with Bassil, Salam offered the FPM the foreign affairs portfolio and asked the movement to choose between the public works and the education portfolios, according to MTV.

Should FPM leader MP Michel Aoun accept the offer, the cabinet will be formed immediately, MTV added.

The TV network said the cabinet will be formed in the coming days even if Aoun rejected the proposal.

Under this scenario, "the FPM and Hizbullah would resign from Salam's cabinet and the portfolios would be allocated to acting ministers from the AMAL Movement, the Tashnag Party and the Marada Movement."

Meanwhile, the FPM's mouthpiece OTV said "no progress has been made in the cabinet formation process and today's meetings with Salam were 'neither negative nor positive.'"

Quoting Salam and FPM sources, LBCI TV said "Salam and Bassil thoroughly discussed the issue of portfolios during their meeting, without achieving any tangible progress."

Officials close to Salam have said that the PM-designate does not mind to contact Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to resolve the government impasse.

The officials, who were not identified, told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Sunday that Salam had previously met on several occasions with Bassil to discuss with him the government formation process.

But they stressed that any consultation with Aoun should be based on the deal reached between the rival parties to form a cabinet based on the 8-8-8 formula and the rotation of portfolios among sects.

The FPM chief had rejected the agreement, sticking to the energy and telecommunications ministries that are part of his share in the resigned cabinet of caretaker Premier Najib Miqati.

Bassil, who is Aoun's son-in-law, said on several occasions that Salam did not consult the FPM when he agreed with the rest of the factions on the 8-8-8 formula and the rotation.

Al-Hayat quoted political sources as saying that President Michel Suleiman and Salam have no longer any choice but to issue the decree of the cabinet by giving the March 8 and 14 alliances and centrists 8 ministers each.

The sources said Aoun would get the foreign ministry, public works, education and another fourth portfolio in such a cabinet.

The energy and telecom ministries would be part of the share of Suleiman, who forms the centrist bloc along with Salam and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, they told al-Hayat.

“It is no longer acceptable to wait for the formation of the cabinet,” the sources said.