Abou Faour Defends Jumblat's Proposal to Give Veto Power to Rivals
Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour denied that Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat had become closer to the March 8 alliance after dropping his support for giving eight ministers to each of Lebanon's three political camps in the new cabinet.
In an interview with An Nahar newspaper published on Saturday, Abou Faour said: “There isn't any change in any regard except for the protection of stability.”
“We were the first to call for the 8-8-8 formula and Walid Jumblat worked for it and tried to garner consensus on it,” the caretaker minister, who is a PSP member, said.
“Let some people stop making unfair explanations,” he added.
His comments came after Jumblat said in an interview that he has dropped his support for a new cabinet in which the March 8 and 14 alliances in addition to centrists would get eight ministers each.
He instead called for giving the two rival camps nine ministers each and six ministers to centrists – President Michel Suleiman, PM-designate Tammam Salam and Jumblat.
This formula prevents a certain party from controlling the government by giving veto power to Hizbullah and its team and another veto power to March 14, he said.
Abou Faour said that Jumblat's proposal “may not be the perfect formula ... but any cabinet formula is better than the current situation.”
“We want the new government to be a source of consensus and not cause clashes,” he told An Nahar.
Suleiman and Salam share with Jumblat his vision on the need to end the cabinet crisis although the 9-9-6 formula limits the share of the centrists, he said.
“But we are not after political gains. We are trying to avoid the worst for us and the nation,” he said.
Salam has said conditions and counter-conditions set by the rival sides have brought his efforts to form a cabinet to a stalemate.
Asked whether he believed there was still a chance to hold all-party talks to resolve the country's political crises, Abou Faour said national dialogue “is now a necessity and not a choice.”
“We shouldn't wait for regional settlements. We should produce our own consensus,” he said.
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