Berri to Follow Up Cabinet Formation Indirectly, Denies Dispute with Miqati
Speaker Nabih Berri has decided not to directly follow up on the cabinet formation process, tasking his advisor MP Ali Hasan Khalil to carry out the mission, An Nahar reported on Monday.
“I am waiting to reach the stage of decision and formation,” Berri said.
The speaker denied that there are any disagreements between him and premier-designate Najib Miqati, saying that the meeting that was supposed to take place (between the two of them) “was cancelled because he had to head to the South”.
Berri pointed out that Miqati held a meeting Friday night with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s advisor Hussein Khalil and MP Ali Hassan Khalil at his residence in Verdun.
Concerning the issue of handing Miqati the candidates’ names for portfolios, Berri reiterated to the newspaper that they won’t argue over names.
“I’ve already told the premier-designate that I have no problem regarding this issue … and this is Hizbullah’s stance also,” he said.
On Wednesday’s expected parliamentary session, the speaker stressed: “The session stands until the day of resurrection; if it lacked the quorum on June 8 we will call for another session the next week and so on.”
Addressing the March 14 camp and other blocs’ statements that the session is unconstitutional, Berri said: “If a hundred MPs attended the session and the Sunni MPs were absent I will not hold a session as opposed to when former PM Fouad Saniora held Cabinet sessions when all of its Shiite ministers had resigned.”
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