Suleiman Clings to His Role in Naming Interior Minister as New Majority Urged to Adopt Lenient Approach
Sources monitoring the contacts to form a new government stated that the efforts to ease the demands over the cabinet are still delaying its formation, adding however that caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s announcement that he does not seek to be reappointed as minister will help restore dialogue among the disputed sides.
They told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in remarks published on Monday that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun should be receptive of President Michel Suleiman’s refusal to enter in a dispute with him regarding the former’s insistence on acquiring the Interior Ministry portfolio.
They said that the MP should respect the President instead of “embarking on race to choose a suitable candidate.”
“Several of the parties in the new majority do not entrust Aoun with all negotiations on the new government, especially if he continues on insisting on eliminating Suleiman’s role through his insistence on acquiring the Interior Ministry,” they added.
In addition, they noted that Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji’s proposal of four possible candidates for the Interior Ministry is an attempt to avert a dispute between Suleiman and Aoun.
“However, this does not mean that problem has been resolved,” they said.
“The proposal does not eliminate the president’s role in choosing the Interior Minister,” the sources stressed.
Furthermore, sources close to Speaker Nabih Berri’s advisor, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s advisor, Hussein al-Khalil, said that the two officials did not address Qahwaji’s proposal during their latest meeting with the President.
Talks instead focused on finding a new mechanism to name an Interior Minister, they added.
“Suleiman and Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati will not relinquish their authorities in the government formation process and they will not appear as the weak links in the consultations,” stated the source monitoring the formation process.
“The ball is now in the new majority’s court where it should adopt a lenient and open approach with Suleiman’s position and not seek to weaken him,” the sources stressed.
They feared that should Aoun maintain his “stubborn” stance, then Lebanon may become embroiled in a crisis that goes beyond the government formation.
It would become involved in an effort to change the system “according to Aoun’s view of diminishing the Christian role in the government and monopolizing its representation,” they warned.
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