Suleiman Gives Saniora 3 p.m. Deadline to Form Cabinet

Source: Al-Manar TV, 11-07-2008

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has given the loyalty and opposition blocs until Friday afternoon to form the national unity government, the Al-Akhbar daily said. "If Prime Minister Designate Fouad Saniora did not visit the Presidential Palace before 15:00 local time with a
cabinet line-up ready to be announced, then things will turn different," the daily said.

For its part the Assafir daily said that there had been consultations within the loyalty bloc which resulted in the relinquishment of former minister Ghattas Khouri by MP Saad Hariri and Nehme Tohme by MP Walid Jumblatt from the cabinet line-up. According to the daily, Saniora will choose between the candidates of Qornet Shehwan (Mansour el-Bon and Nayla Moawwad) adding the el-Bon has more chances than Moawwad.

The Ministry of Public Works will go to current Information Minister in the caretaker government Ghazi Aridi (from Jumblatt's bloc), while Minister of Public Works in the caretaker government Mohammad Safadi will take the Economics portfolio.

According to Assafir, the delay in announcing the government is due to another attempt by Saniora and his ruling bloc to pressure the opposition into replacing the former head of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) Ali Kanso with another Shiite from the same party.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has accused the "March 14 bloc" of "squandering justice and the justice ministry."

Berri, in an interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas, did not elaborate on the charge that was apparently in reference to a decision by the majority to nominate Ibrahim Najjar from Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces to the justice portfolio in the forthcoming cabinet.

The opposition, however, stuck to the nomination of Qanso and warned that vetoing any minister will lead to counter-vetoes the first of which is the Lebanese Forces candidate to take the Justice portfolio.

"Whoever squanders justice and the justice ministry should accept the whole Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) in the cabinet, not just Ali Kanso," Berri said.

The loyalty bloc has opposed the nomination of Kanso for seat in the new cabinet, for personal reason. The opposition on the other hand, did not oppose the nomination of any of the loyalty's candidates.

Berri said if the government was not formed prior to President Michel Suleiman's Paris visit on Saturday, he would call for a parliamentary session after the president's return to tackle "the delay in forming the cabinet." "I realize that the constitution does not set a timeframe for cabinet formation efforts, but this doesn't mean that Lebanon should remain like this forever," Berri added.

Failing to form a government would lead "things back to the street, one way or the other," Berri warned.