Suleiman Meets Miqati ahead of Consultations with Parliamentary Blocs

President Michel Suleiman held talks with Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday to set the stage for future consultations with parliamentary blocs to name a new premier.

Suleiman, who returned from the Arab League summit in Doha on Wednesday, met with Miqati at Baabda palace for around 60 minutes to set the appropriate date for the consultations, a presidential statement said.

Although reports have said that the president is not likely to call for consultations before agreement on the type of the new cabinet, LBCI TV quoted sources as saying that the date was set for April 5 and 6.

The caretaker PM left the presidential palace after the talks without making any statement.

Sources told An Nahar daily that Suleiman wants to know whether the government would be a national salvation government led by Miqati and in which all sides take part, or it would have the objective of extending the term of parliament or a cabinet of confrontation as some officials from the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance have hinted.

The last option would lead the country to a crisis, the sources warned.

Also Thursday, Suleiman met with Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and caretaker Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi.

The presidency said in a terse statement that Rifi briefed Suleiman on the security situation in the country and the measures taken by security forces in coordination with the army to preserve stability.

Miqati resigned last Friday over differences between cabinet members on the authority that would oversee the elections and the extension of Rifi's tenure.

Rifi will turn 59 – the ISF’s maximum working age – on April 1, while Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji will turn 60 this year, the maximum age for the post of the army commander.

The opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc has proposed an urgent draft-law that allows both Rifi and Qahwaji to stay in their posts until they reach respectively the age of 62 and 63.