Major Security Hurdles Prevent Cabinet Formation Efforts
Efforts exerted by Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam hit several roadblocks this week after fighting engulfed the northern city of Tripoli and Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war drew strong local and international condemnation.
A proposal to give the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance, the March 14 coalition and the centrists eight ministers each in the new cabinet collapsed after Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting in Syria, informed sources told An Nahar daily published Wednesday.
The newspaper quoted high-ranking March 14 officials as saying that “it is no longer acceptable for a party that dragged Lebanon to a war on the northeastern and the southeastern border to participate in the government.”
The officials, who were not identified, said Hizbullah was endangering Lebanon.
Hizbullah fighters poured across the border from Lebanon into Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other sources said, bolstering Syrian regime forces battling to retake the key rebel stronghold of Qusayr.
Washington condemned the party's role and the European Union opened the door to adding Hizbullah's military wing to its list of international terrorist groups.
Locally, fighting between gunmen from the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh that backs the revolution against Syrian President Bashar Assad and Jabal Mohsen, whose residents are from his Alawite sect, worsened the security situation in the entire country.
Head of the Arab Democratic Party Rifaat Eid who supports the Jabal Mohsen gunmen, announced that he had been staging a battle of self defense after allegedly hundreds of gunmen from Akkar and Dinniyeh had converged on Tripoli to fight alongside the Bab al-Tabbaneh fighters.
Informed sources said the deteriorating security situation and Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian fighting were threatening the cabinet formation efforts.
The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the latest consultations between Salam and the different parties were focusing on forming a government in which the three major alliances would get eight ministers each in return for a two-year extension of parliament's mandate.
Some parties are calling for a two-year extension while others want the parliament’s term to be extended for six months.
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