Report: Independence Day Set as Deadline to Form New Government
Efforts to form a new government will not halt during the Eid al-Adha holiday, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
It said that the formation of a new cabinet can no longer be delayed, adding that an Independence Day on November 22 has been set as a deadline or “red line” for political powers to overcome all obstacles hindering their efforts to form a government.
To that end, concerned sources revealed that new efforts will be exerted to form a new cabinet, meaning that new proposals over the issue will be presented.
These efforts will focus on highlighting to officials the need for them to assume their responsibilities “because Lebanon is on the verge of economic and social collapse.”
The sources predicted that the efforts that will follow Eid al-Adha, which falls on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, will be similar to indirect dialogue between the political powers seeing as obstacles have hindered their return to the national dialogue table.
These efforts will act as last-ditch measures ahead of the possibility of the formation of a government by President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam if the political powers fail to resolve their differences, they added.
Salam has said conditions and counter-conditions set by the rival sides have brought his efforts to form a cabinet to a stalemate.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat recently revealed that he 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 – Suleiman, 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.
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