'Crucial 48 Hours' as Hizbullah Speaks of 'Int'l Support' for Solutions

A Hizbullah minister has noted that there could be a solution soon to the government formation crisis after the international community sent a “message” to all political forces.

“A solution started looming after the international message reached the various political parties,” caretaker State Minister for Parliament Affairs Mahmoud Qmati said, noting that “several international parties” are pushing for a solution in Lebanon.

Describing President Michel Aoun’s decision to postpone parliamentary consultations for naming a new PM as “rational and wise,” Qmati acknowledged that any one-sided government would face huge international pressures.

He also said that the re-designation of caretaker PM Saad Hariri or picking someone close to him would help Lebanon win international support for the new government.

Sources informed on the negotiations pertaining to the governmental crisis meanwhile said that the next 48 hours will be “important, and perhaps crucial, in terms of negotiations with Hariri with the aim of re-designating him.”

The coming hours will determine whether “the language of conditions and counter-conditions has receded,” An-Nahar newspaper quoted the sources as saying in remarks published Sunday.