Report: Govt. Almost Formed before Bassil Torpedoed It
PM-designate Najib Miqati was supposed to visit Baabda at 6pm Monday to meet President Michel Aoun and issue the decrees of the new government, but the formation process returned to square one after Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil torpedoed it, an informed political source said.
“Bassil insisted on the re-distribution of some portfolios to sects and demanded the replacement of others with ones loyal to Aoun,” the source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.
The source also revealed that Miqati had visit Speaker Nabih Berri as part of “the preparations for the announcement of the new government’s line-up, which was agreed on with Aoun through Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.”
“Berri called for issuing the line-up in tribute to the late Higher Islamic Shiite Council chief Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, who was buried yesterday,” the source added.
“Miqati practiced the highest levels of patience and did not react to the eleventh-hour setback caused by Bassil’s insistence,” the source went on to say, noting that the PM-designate heeded the desire of French President Emmanuel Macron’s presidential advisor Patrick Durrell.
The source added that Bassil torpedoed the line-up in an attempt to “reshuffle the cards on the hope of securing the blocking one-third for his political camp.”
“He rejected giving the economy portfolios to Sunnis and opposed consensus over the name of Hiyam Mallat for the justice portfolio instead of Judge Henri Khoury,” the source went on to say, adding that Bassil also wanted the deputy PM post to be part of his share and called for giving the Shiite community agriculture instead of tourism.
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