Mikati hits back at FPM, blames 'president's entourage' for govt. delay
Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Wednesday snapped back at the Free Patriotic Movement, and blamed “the interference of the president’s entourage” among other things for the failure to form a new government.
“The FPM keeps stirring quarrels and reversing facts on the brink of the end of the presidential tenure, in a clear attempt to deviate attention from the failure that characterized the past years in all fields,” Mikati’s press office said in a statement.
It also accused the FPM of seeking to “justify its failure in the many files it was in charge of, most importantly the electricity file.”
As for the delay in the government formation, Mikati’s office reminded that the PM-designate “had visited the president a day after the end of the parliamentary consultations, submitting to him a cabinet line-up in line with his constitutional powers and in the manner he saw appropriate, before beginning to discuss it with His Excellency the President.”
“But the deliberate leaking of the line-up to the press, and the subsequent interference of the president’s entourage and their insults against the premiership’s position and the PM-designate in person have become known facts, and the FPM’s statement cannot cover up for them,” the press office added.
Responding to an accusation that Mikati is “obstructing the implementation of the electricity plan,” the press office said the current energy minister should be asked about the matter, noting that “he was the one who demanded that the plan’s file be dropped from the agenda of the cabinet session and he has not returned with it until now.”
Source: Naharnet
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