Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star/Hariri gets down to Cabinet formation/Hariri Says New President, Govt. ‘Opportunity to Revitalize Ties’ with Gulf

 Hariri gets down to Cabinet formation
Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star/November 07/16

BEIRUT: Armed with an overwhelming local, regional and international support, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Sunday got down to the challenging nitty-gritty of forming a national accord Cabinet after wrapping up two days of “positive” consultations with rival political factions.

Meanwhile, President Michel Aoun, addressing thousands of supporters who gathered outside the presidential palace in Baabda to congratulate him on his election as head of state, vowed to build a strong state and stamp out rampant corruption in the public administration.

“Hariri is striving to form a 30-member Cabinet representing all the parties in line with his pledge to set up a national accord government,” a political source told The Daily Star.

Hariri met Sunday night with Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, with whom he discussed the ongoing attempts to form a new government, his office said.

Hariri met with Aoun at Baabda Palace Saturday to brief him on the outcome of two days of consultations with various parliamentary blocs on the formation of a new government. The head of the Future Movement, who did not speak to reporters after meeting Aoun, sounded optimistic about forming a government.

“The atmosphere was positive. There was a lot of cooperation between me, Speaker Nabih Berri and his excellency the president,” Hariri told reporters in Parliament Saturday after meeting with Hezbollah’s 13-member Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, and his 33-member Future bloc, in addition to some independent MPs on the second and final day of consultations on the Cabinet formation

He said that demands by rival parties to be allotted sovereign ministerial portfolios were normal during these consultations. The sovereign ministerial portfolios include the Defense, Interior, Finance and Foreign Affairs ministries.

Expressing hope that a new government could be formed before Independence Day on Nov. 22, Hariri pointed out that political parties would be represented in proportion to the size of their parliamentary bloc.

Rival politicians have called for facilitating the Cabinet formation.

“What matters is facilitating the Cabinet formation and avoiding demands that are impossible to meet,” MP Walid Jumblatt, head of the 11-member Democratic Gathering bloc, tweeted Sunday.

Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah demanded that obstacles not be put in the way of forming a national unity government.“We call for opening a new page in Lebanon and for some [politicians] to re-formulate their national speeches to conform with the next stage,” he said.

LF deputy chief MP George Adwan said his party and the FPM were in agreement on sharing sovereign ministerial portfolios. “We are demanding a sovereign ministry, a public services ministry and a technical ministry such as Telecommunications,” Adwan said in a TV interview.

In addition to gaining a sweeping mandate from internal parties to form a new government, Hariri has also received the support of the international community.

Hariri met Saturday night with the International Support Group for Lebanon, which includes U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag, the head of the European Union delegation to Lebanon Ambassador Christina Lassen, and the ambassadors of the United States, China, Russia, Italy, Britain, France and Germany as well as the Arab League’s Assistant Secretary-General Abdel Rahman Solh.

“We had an excellent meeting with Prime Minister-[designate] Saad Hariri. We discussed his vision for the country, the formation of a government of national accord, and his priorities in areas like the economy and elections,” Kaag said in a statement after the meeting.

“We looked at a more effective management of the refugees’ situation in the country and all the ways in which the international community, in particular the International Support Group, can help Lebanon, President Aoun and Prime Minister-[designate] Hariri succeed in their shared vision. It is a message of support and looking together at what more can be done and how it can be done,” she added in the statement released by Hariri’s media office.

Meanwhile, in his first address from Baabda Palace since his election by Parliament as Lebanon’s 13th president on Oct. 31, Aoun said that it had never been his intention to be a head of state, but to build a strong nation by bolstering national unity.

“A strong nation needs a strong state to run it and a strong state is built according to a Constitution that is respected equally by all politicians,” Aoun told thousands of supporters waving Lebanon’s flag who gathered at the entrance of Baabda Palace.

“From now on, no head will violate the Constitution,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Declaring that he has many projects to improve electricity and water supplies and exploit the country’s offshore gas and oil reserves to reduce public debts estimated at more than $70 billion, Aoun said: “Corruption will be uprooted and the environment will return to being clean whatever the cost.”

He also promised to preserve the country’s independence, sovereignty and freedom. “We will not be subservient to any other country,” he said. “We will manage our own affairs and deal with others in a friendly manner. Our independence and sovereignty don’t mean hostility with other states.”

Aoun’s supporters began their rally early Sunday morning. Men, women and children of all ages took to the streets en route to Baabda Palace. A large banner reading the “People’s Palace” had been erected on the palace grounds. The ecstatic crowd interrupted Aoun several times while he spoke.

Aoun said he would seek to improve the livelihoods of the people, and ensure that law enforcement and security agencies are just and impartial. “Our hopes are high and there’s will,” he said.

“We have met in this square before, during difficult times … we lost martyrs and others went missing … but we will continue on the path and build the future,” said Aoun, flanked by six of his most loyal men.

“The road ahead of us is long … The first steps are the formation of a government, the approval of an electoral law and holding elections on time,” Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil told reporters at Baabda Palace.

Hariri Says New President, Govt. ‘Opportunity to Revitalize Ties’ with Gulf
Naharnet/November 07/16/Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri announced Monday that the election of a new president in Lebanon and the formation of a new government represent an opportunity to “revitalize” Lebanon’s ties with the Arab Gulf states.

“The assumption of the presidency by His Excellency General Michel Aoun and the new government that is being formed represent an opportunity to stress Lebanon’s Arab identity and revitalize Lebanon’s ties with its brothers in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries,” said Hariri during a meeting at the Center House with the ambassadors of the Gulf states.  “The Lebanese have unanimously welcomed President Aoun’s oath of office and all its clauses, including those related to Lebanon’s Arab ties which are based on respect for the Arab League charter, especially Article 8 that stipulates non-interference by the member states in the affairs of each other,” Hariri added.

In his oath of office last Monday, Aoun also vowed to endorse “an independent foreign policy based on Lebanon’s highest interest and respect for international law,” while pledging to protect Lebanon from “the fires burning across the region.”Turning to economy, Hariri said the GCC countries constitute a “vital economic space for Lebanon, because they provide job opportunities for the Lebanese, markets for their exports, sources of direct investments in Lebanon and are essential for tourism in Lebanon.”“The Gulf governments and development funds are, as well, the first source of assistance and facilitated financing for projects of reconstruction and development in Lebanon,” he added.

“All Lebanese know this truth and feel proud and grateful to their Gulf brothers for their support. They rely on the continuation of these sincere fraternal relations at a time when they regain hope in the reactivation of all their constitutional institutions and in the formation of a government that will start to address the urgent crises afflicting Lebanon,” Hariri went on to say. Ties between Lebanon and the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, were strained under Tammam Salam’s government due to tensions between Riyadh and Iran-backed Hizbullah. Saudi Arabia has congratulated Aoun on his election despite the unstinting support he received from Hizbullah, which Riyadh blacklisted as a “terrorist organization” in March.

Saudi Arabia’s relations with both Hizbullah and its ally Iran have deteriorated sharply this year amid deep differences over the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and the unrest in Bahrain. Earlier this year, the kingdom halted a $3 billion program of military aid to Lebanon to protest what it said was “the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the state.”It also urged its citizens to leave Lebanon and avoid travel to the country. Several other Gulf states have also issued travel warnings.