Reports: Health Portfolio to Go to Franjieh, FPM and LF to Get Foreign Affairs, Defense

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh will likely get the health ministry portfolio in Saad Hariri's government while the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces will take the defense and foreign affairs portfolios, media reports said on Sunday.

“Hariri is keen on the participation of ex-minister Suleiman Franjieh in the government and he is inclined to allocate the health ministry portfolio to him or to someone who represents him,” informed political sources told the Saudi daily Okaz.

Unnamed sources meanwhile told the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that “the inclination is to form a cabinet comprised of 30 or 32 ministers.”

“The foreign affairs and defense portfolios will likely go to Christians – the first to the LF party and the second to the FPM – while the interior and finance portfolios will go to Muslims – the first to al-Mustaqbal Movement's Nouhad al-Mashnouq and the second to Speaker Nabih Berri,” the sources said.

The sources noted that the cabinet share of President Michel Aoun will be separate from that of his Free Patriotic Movement.

“The premier will also have a share that would be separate from that of al-Mustaqbal Movement,” the sources added.

“The FPM is expected to get four portfolios in a 30-minister cabinet while the president is also expected to have four portfolios,” the sources went on to say, noting that Aoun's ministers are likely to be “technocrats or independent figures who would play an effective role during Aoun's tenure.”

Hariri's key support had contributed to the election of Aoun as Lebanon's 13th president on Monday, which ended around two and a half years of presidential and political vacuum.

Hariri's nomination and Aoun's election have raised hopes that Lebanon can begin tackling challenges including a stagnant economy, a moribund political class and the influx of more than a million Syrian refugees.

In a sign that Hariri's task ahead might not be easy, Hizbullah's MPs declined to endorse him for the prime minister post, even though his nomination was all-but-assured.

Hariri is likely to struggle with his government's policy statement, which will have to make reference to Israel, as well as the war in Syria, both potential flashpoints with Hizbullah.

The process of forming a government could take months, with horsetrading likely to revolve around the distribution of key posts like the interior, defense and energy ministries.