HARIRI WANTS CABINET TALKS ‘KEPT AWAY FROM MEDIA’
Nafez Qawas
Daily Star
Sept 18 2009
Lebanon
Aoun agrees on need to ‘calm things down’
BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Thursday stressed
the need to form a cabinet that responds to the hopes of the
Lebanese. Hariri called on politicians to engage in consultations that
are "kept away from the media" in order to reach that end. He said
that such a cabinet could only be formed through dialogue involving all
political parties, and which ought to be done "within closed rooms."
Following his protocol meeting with caretaker Premier Fouad Siniora,
Hariri stressed that the next cabinet lineup "should serve the
interests of all the Lebanese and not the interest of one party
or movement."
"We have to rely on ourselves and to build state institutions on
the basis of implementing the Taif Accord," he said in reference to
the Saudi-brokered agreement that put an end to Lebanon’s 1975-90
Civil War.
One day following his re-designation, Hariri paid protocol visits
to former heads of government including Rashid al-Solh, Omar Karami,
Salim al-Hoss, Michel Aoun, as well as Siniora.
Hariri also phoned former Premier Najib Mikati, who is on a private
trip to Saudi Arabia.
Regarding dialogue over cabinet, Hariri reiterated that he was "looking
forward to having talks with all concerned parties," but asked that
"no conditions" precede any political talk.
"Thoughts ought to be voiced with frank and clear words," Hariri said,
while calling on all political groups to take part in consultations
that would be kept away from the media.
Hariri described his meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader
Aoun "as serious and frank just like meetings with all former prime
ministers."
In a quick chat with reporters, Aoun said he agreed with Hariri on
the need to "calm things down and avoid tense rhetoric."
"We agreed to keep things calm and avoid tensions in light of the
growing economy and stable security conditions," he said.
Aoun insists that his son-in-law caretaker Telecommunication Minister
Jebran Bassil be re-appointed for a second term while Hariri has
refused to grant candidates who lost the race to Parliament a seat
in the cabinet.
Bassil lost the elections in his hometown of Batroun to candidates
allied with Hariri in the March 14 Forces.
Meanwhile, former Premier Karami said the already agreed-upon 15-10-5
cabinet formula ought to be preserved.
The 15-10-5 structure grants the majority 15 ministers, the opposition
10 and Sleiman five seats, guaranteeing the president the tipping
vote. Both the majority and the opposition are respectively denied
absolute majority or veto power.
"Pending difficulties ought to be solved now rather than going back
to square one," he told reporters after talks with Hariri.
He added that most opposition lawmakers did not nominate Hariri
in the second round of consultations with the president, "because
the parliamentary majority and they were certain he was going to
be re-designated."
By the end of two days of consultations on Wednesday, 73 MPs had
nominated Hariri to head the cabinet, including 71 lawmakers of the
parliamentary majority along with two from the opposition’s Armenian
Tashnag party.
Hariri stepped down as premier designate last Thursday accusing the
opposition of hampering his efforts to form a cabinet during his
first-time designation.
Unlike the first round of consultations in June, Speaker Nabih Berri’s
Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc did not name Hariri
this time.
The bloc’s stance has created mild tensions between it and Hariri’s
Future Movement.
During a press conference on Thursday, an MP of Hariri’s Lebanon
First parliamentary bloc lashed out at the opposition, saying it
refuses to admit that it holds the parliamentary minority.
"We are a the majority and the opposition is the minority based on
the people’s votes during the 2009 parliamentary elections," Tripoli
MP Mohammad Kabbara told a news conference on Thursday.
He added that the opposition’s participation in the next cabinet
should be tied to the results of the June 7 polls.
"We will no longer accept that the opposition takes part in a cabinet
that provides guarantees for its arms, which were used against the
Lebanese," he said in reference to Hizbullah’s arsenal and the May 7,
2008 events.
Following a decision on May 5, 2008 by the government then-headed
by Siniora to dismantle Hizbullah’s private communications network,
opposition and pro-government gunmen engaged in violent street clashes.
Kabbara warned that the majority would not allow the reoccurrence
of the May 7 events or an opportunity for another Doha Agreement,
which put an end to the clashes to be signed.
Kabbara said the majority would refuse to meet the opposition’s
pre-conditions, especially regarding the Telecommunications
Ministry. "We will reject their participation in the cabinet if they
set conditions such as being granted the Telecommunications Ministry
in order to spy on the Lebanese and threaten their security," he said.
Kabbara added that the parliamentary majority also rejects the
opposition’s "external affiliations."
He described Iran’s alleged call for a three-way power-sharing deal
in Lebanon as "a call for war, which would be more dangerous than the
[previous] civil war."
Also on Thursday, Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP
Hussein al-Moussawi said during a rally in Tyre that the formation
of a national-unity cabinet was the "right" choice, adding that any
alternative would lead to instability in the country.
Moussawi added that Hizbullah was willing to cooperate with Hariri
in his effort to form a government.
He warned that the atmosphere in the country was very similar to the
one that preceded the election of President Sleiman in May 2008.