Report: Political Parties Agree on Cabinet of 18 Portfolios

Political parties have agreed on excluding former ministers from the new government, but according to leaked reports the new line-up is a “disguised” ministerial quota naming 18 non-partisan figures equally divided between Muslims and Christians, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily the government will be composed of:

9 Christian ministers: 4 Maronite, 3 Orthodox, one Catholic, one Armenian. Some of the names presented were Demianos Qattar (Maronite) and Wadih al-Absi (Orthodox).

9 Musim ministers: 4 Shiite, 4 Sunni, one Druze.

The daily said that Shiite figures nominated are economic expert Ghazi Wazni who could be named as finance minister, Abdul Halim Fadlallah and Aliaa al-Moqdar.

Names suggested for the Sunni quota are: Tarek Majzoub, Abdulrahman al-Bizri, Othman Sultan (Telecommunications ministry), retired brigadier Army general Basem Khaled, or retired Marine Brigadier Hosni Daher (to the Ministry of Interior).

Ghassan al-Aridi is suggested to represent the Druze community.