Miqati Vows not to Yield to Crippling Demands
Routine meetings that Premier-designate Najib Miqati has held with the envoys of the speaker, the Hizbullah leader and the Free Patriotic Movement chief are now in limbo after such talks were not held for the second straight day Friday.
An Nahar daily said Saturday that Miqati waited for answers from MP Ali Hassan Khalil, Hussein Khalil and Jebran Bassil on several questions he had raised to them earlier in the week. However, the three envoys did not visit him at his office on Friday.
Despite a freeze in his meetings with the three envoys, Miqati held talks with former MP Nazem al-Khoury, President Michel Suleiman’s advisor, on Friday, As Safir newspaper said.
Khoury said that the meeting came as part of efforts to find a comprehensive solution to the cabinet crisis including agreement on names and portfolios.
The news came as Miqati’s visitors told al-Liwaa daily that the prime minister-designate informed them that the formation of the cabinet has gone back to the starting point despite agreement to nominate retired Internal Security Forces Maj. Gen. Marwan Charbel for the controversial interior ministry post.
He reportedly said that the demands of the different parties of the March 8 forces were increasing every time he reached a deal with them on a sticking point. “But I won’t agree to all what they are asking for,” the visitors quoted him as saying.
Miqati’s circles told An Nahar that consultations to form the government haven’t yet reached the stage of announcing that the cabinet lineup is being readied. They said that some parties whether intentionally or not are seeking to keep the country in a deadlock.
The circles confirmed to As Safir that the Lebanese should not expect the formation of the cabinet before next week.
“I will not back off,” Miqati reportedly told his visitors. “I am keen on forming the cabinet out of my keenness on the country and protection of the country’s interest.”
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