Miqati's Resignation Chances Surge as Pessimism Engulfs Formation Process

The optimism that engulfed the cabinet formation process in the past days has largely retreated and the possibility of PM-designate Najib Miqati’s resignation has become a “more than serious choice,” a media report published Monday said.

“The formation picture is not reassuring and we are before a critical week regarding the government,” informed political sources told the al-Joumhouria newspaper.

“The indications that are being leaked from the sources of President (Michel) Aoun and Miqati point to negative prospects,” the sources said.

The sources attributed the negativity to “veiled domestic and foreign interventions that took place heavily over the past days and frustrated the positivities that Aoun and Miqati had spoken of prior to the end of last week.”

“Prior to this setback, Aoun and Miqati were about to enter the final phase of picking the candidates ahead of declaring the cabinet line-up within a few days,” al-Joumhouria said.

And as political sources linked the setback exclusively to “sudden conditions and demands by some parties as to substituting candidates, mutual vetoes and additional portfolios,” other sources attributed the negativity to Aoun’s “insistence” on obtaining “more than one third” of the cabinet’s seats.