Cabinet Lineup Reportedly Awaiting Nasrallah-Aoun Meeting but FPM Leader Holds Onto Demands
A final agreement on the cabinet lineup awaits a meeting between Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, a March 8 source said despite reports that Aoun continued to hold onto his demand for 11 cabinet ministers, including the interior ministry portfolio.
“The meeting between Sayyed Nasrallah and General Aoun hopefully will pave the way for the formation of a government,” the source told The Daily Star in remarks published Wednesday.
The source said Hizbullah intensified its efforts to ease Aoun’s demands to facilitate an agreement with Premier-designate Najib Miqati over the distribution of ministerial portfolios.
The proposal would downgrade Aoun’s Change and Reform parliamentary bloc’s share from 11 to 10 ministers while a compromise arrangement between President Michel Suleiman and Aoun would consist of nominating an independent figure to head the interior ministry, said The Daily Star.
But An Nahar newspaper said Aoun insists on getting 11 ministers including the interior ministry and rejects giving a portfolio to MP Talal Arslan.
It said discussions are also underway on the possibility of forming a 30-member government in which Amal, Hizbullah, Aoun and other March 8 parties would get 19 ministers while Suleiman, Miqati and MP Walid Jumblat would be represented by 11 ministers, including the interior portfolio.
Speaker Nabih Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil, and Hussein Khalil, who is Nasrallah’s advisor, held talks with Aoun in this regard on Tuesday. The lawmaker later met with Miqati at the latter’s residence.
Caretaker Minister Ghazi Aridi who is also involved in the consultations on the formation of the cabinet told An Nahar that a progress was made paving the way for serious discussions on the lineup.
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