Report: Jumblat Clinches Deal on Cabinet but March 14 Rejects Army-People-Resistance
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat succeeded in clinching a deal with the March 8 and March 14 alliances on the form of the new government, As Safir daily reported on Monday.
The newspaper said that his talks with President Michel Suleiman, Premier-designate Tammam Salam and members of the March 14 coalition culminated with the approval to form a 24-member in which March 14, March 8 and the centrists would get 8 ministers each.
An agreement was also reached to end the March 14 veto on giving cabinet seats to Hizbullah, the report said.
The alliance's members had been urging Salam to exclude Hizbullah from the government over its participation in the fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops in Syria.
But al-Mustaqbal MP Hadi Hbeish denied to Voice of Lebanon (93.3) that such a deal was reach.
“March 14 is still discussing in the 8-8-8 formula with Hizbullah's participation in the cabinet to issue its official stance,” he said.
According to As Safir, the deal lied in leaving to parliament the decision on giving its vote of confidence to the new cabinet or rejecting the line-up.
Following the latest developments, As Safir said Jumblat dispatched caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour to Riyadh for talks with top Saudi officials on the cabinet formation efforts.
The newspaper also reported that the March 14 alliance's leaders have agreed in the latest meeting they held at Center House to have the Baabda Declaration as the basis of the cabinet's policy statement rather than the army-people-resistance formula.
But such an effort would face the obstacles of the March 8 alliance and mainly Hizbullah and Amal movement that hold onto the formula.
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