Berri Says No Problem with Forming ‘One-Sided’ Govt.
Speaker Nabih Berri said there is nothing wrong with forming a “one-sided” government if the PM-designate Hassan Diab fails to convince all political parties to participate in the cabinet he is about to form, media reports said on Tuesday.
The Speaker said Diab must “spare no effort to convince all political components to participate in the government, it is up to them if they choose not to,” visitors quoted Berri as saying.
Al-Mustaqbal Movement, the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party do not want a role in the cabinet.
“There is no problem” if the government is one-sided,” said Berri “many countries around the world form such governments,” he stated.
Diab, an engineering professor designated Thursday to form a desperately-needed government, plans to form a cabinet of “independent experts within four to six weeks.”
He is set to hold a series of talks with officials including the LF and al-Mustaqbal.
According to Berri’s visitors, the Speaker believes “there is no problem with forming a government of specialists and partisans.”
Diab held talks Saturday with parliamentary blocs on the formation of a government but met several challenges as key groups insisted that the cabinet must include established parties not just independent experts.
The complicated process of forming a government comes as Lebanon faces its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Source: Naharnet
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