14-member Cabinet Makes the Rounds as Suleiman Holds Onto Right to Have a Say on Lineup
Reports about the possible formation of a 14-member technocrat government began making the rounds again as a way to end the cabinet impasse with the least possible damage.
Al-Liwaa daily said Tuesday that Premier-designate Najib Miqati could resort to such an option after contacts aimed at ending the deadlock on the interior ministry portfolio did not lead to positive results.
This, in addition to President Michel Suleiman’s insistence that he should have a say on the cabinet lineup and not just on the name of a minister.
As Safir daily quoted well-informed sources as saying that Suleiman rejected several names proposed to head the interior ministry out of his right to make suggestions of names until Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun approves one of them and not the other way around.
An Nahar newspaper also said that several suggestions made to solve the deadlock haven’t yet led to results.
Since Miqati’s nomination in January, Suleiman and Aoun have been at loggerheads over the interior ministry portfolio.
Miqati’s circles stressed that consultations are underway amid a “positive atmosphere,” and hoped that consensus would be reached on a personality that receives the backing of all forces.
They said Miqati discussed the issue of the cabinet formation with the aide of the Hizbullah leader, Hussein Khalil, on Monday.
The prime minister-designate also telephoned Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to thank him over his latest stance from the government impasse.
On Monday, Jumblat criticized the vacuum and the obstruction by the new parliamentary majority which has failed to form the cabinet.
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