The Daily Star, Lebanon
July 1 2005
Lebanon’s Siniora to begin consultations on Cabinet
By Leila Hatoum and Nafez Qawas
Daily Star staff
Friday, July 01, 2005
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will begin his
consultations with MPs today to form the new Cabinet, after being
elected to the post by a record 126 out of 128 members of Parliament.
The former finance minister was officially appointed to the post by
President Emile Lahoud after obligatory consultations between the
president and the country’s deputies.
Siniora, who held the finance portfolio in all five of slain former
Premier Rafik Hariri’s Cabinets between 1992 and 2003, vowed in his
acceptance address “to assume all his national responsibilities.”
He urged all MPs to “join hands to achieve reforms, apply all terms
of the Taif Accord, combat corruption, limit public spending, and
adopt a strategy that would achieve social and economic development.”
Siniora also said he wanted to adopt a new electoral law and
eliminate Lebanon’s sectarian political system.
The premier will be paying protocol visits today to all available
former prime ministers before getting started on his consultations to
form the next government.
A U.S. Embassy spokesperson told The Daily Star: “The U.S. looks
forward to working with Siniora to advance economic and political
reforms that will lay the ground work for a stable and prosperous
democratic Lebanon.”
It is almost certain the new Cabinet will be formed of 24 ministers,
with the list of ministers expected to be released sometime over the
weekend.
Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun and his
parliamentary bloc have stated their preference the new ministers not
be MPs.
Aoun, who took refuge in the presidential palace while fighting
Syrian occupation in 1990, returned to the palace for the first time
in 15 years as an MP taking part in the consultations to elect a
premier. He said he “prefers to have four ministers in the new
Cabinet if it is composed of 24 ministers, and five if it has 30
ministers.”
Aoun expressed his bloc’s willingness to hold any portfolio, saying
which ministry his party receives “doesn’t matter as all ministerial
portfolios are equally important.”
MP Strida Geagea, wife of imprisoned Lebanese Forces (LF) leader
Samir Geagea, also prefers new ministers not be MPs.
Lahoud met with Speaker Nabih Berri and his parliamentary bloc, in
addition to members of key opposition leader Chouf MP Walid
Jumblatt’s Democratic Gathering. Jumblatt had announced Tuesday he
would not particpate in the consutations.
Berri said he didn’t mind a nonparliamentary Cabinet as long as it
expresses national unity, while Jumblatt wished Siniora luck in
“carrying the national unity project, protecting the resistance and
safeguarding freedoms.”
The following are two possible lists of names circulating Beirut that
may be appointed to form the next Cabinet.
Scenario 1: LF member Eddie Abi Lameh, Administrative Reforms; FPM
members Ibrahim Kenaan, Youssef Khalil, Edgard Maalouf, and Issam Abu
Jamra to receive undetermined portfolios; Mohammed Khalife, the
outgoing health minister affiliated with Berri – Health; it is
understood Berri has demanded to be given the Social Affairs
Ministry; Elias Skaff, Agriculture; Elias Murr, former interior
minister and Lahoud’s son-in-law, Defense; Future Movement (Saad
Hariri’s party) member and Premier-designate Fouad Siniora, Finance;
Christian opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering member Pierre Gemayel,
Public Works and Transport; Charles Rizk, the outgoing information
minister affiliated with Lahoud, Information; Progressive Socialist
Party member Bassem Sabaa or Future Movement member Ghazi Youssef,
Telecommunications.
Scenario 2: Aoun’s FPM will receive two portfolios, most likely
Justice (former Judge Youssef Saadallah Khoury has been proposed) and
Environment; Aoun ally Elias Skaff, Agriculture portfolio; Aoun will
also receive a portfolio for one of the Armenian Tashnag Party
members; the Qornet Shehwan Gathering will receive one portfolio,
most likely given to Pierre Gemayel; the LF will receive one
portfolio, most likely given to either Roger Deeb or Eddie Abi Lameh;
Lahoud ally Charles Rizk will receive a portfolio; two Shiite
ministers close to Hizbullah will be featured in the new Cabinet, one
of which will be Bassem Sabaa; Premier-designate Fouad Siniora will
hold the Finance portfolio; Elias Murr the Defense portfolio;
Mohammed Khalifeh the Health portfolio; with a disagreement ongoing
between Jumblatt and Hariri over the Interior portfolio, while the
Foreign portfolio may go to a Druze or Shiite representative.