Naharnet

March 14 Slams ‘Unbalanced Confrontational Cabinet’

The March 14 forces dubbed Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet a “confrontational government” that will seek to consolidate itself against the repercussions of the indictment that will be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

A high-ranking March 14 source told An Nahar newspaper published Tuesday that “the government of Hizbullah” was formed “given the critical situation in Syria.”

The coalition’s sources also told al-Joumhouria daily that the new cabinet will not survive.

“It has been booby-trapped since its formation with seven Sunni ministers and five for Shiites … the bomb has been placed to allow Hizbullah to say that the government is unconstitutional,” the sources said.

Al-Mustaqbal movement sources had a similar point of view. They described Miqati’s government as the “cabinet of Jisr al-Shughour and the government of confrontation,” in reference to the northern Syrian town where the army is pursuing alleged armed gangs.

They said that the improvement of the Sunni representation of the northern city of Tripoli “doest not absolve the cabinet from its imbalance.”

The sources were referring to Miqati’s decision to include both Faisal Karami and Ahmed Karami in the government.

Another March 14 party, the Phalange, stressed that Miqati’s cabinet is incapable of confronting the latest developments. “It is a crisis project more than a solution project,” the party said in a terse statement.

Lebanon is now "hostage" to Syria and Hizbullah following the formation of the cabinet, said March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid.

"We denounce the formation of this government and state that Lebanon is a country now being held hostage by the Syrian regime and Hizbullah," he told Agence France Presse.

Soaid said the opposition would formally issue a press release this week stating its stance from the cabinet.


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