Lebanon: Aoun Intervening In Stalled Effort To Form Government
By Arab News
By Najia Houssari
Iran was accused on Tuesday of sabotaging the formation of a government in Lebanon as President Michel Aoun intervened to try to end the impasse.
Political negotiations have been deadlocked since elections in May, in a row over representation in the Cabinet for six Sunni members of Parliament allied with Hezbollah. The 30 ministerial posts are allocated according to a sectarian political system.
“The issue is associated with what Iran wants and what it is given, to agree to the formation of a government or to continue hampering it,” the Minister of Refugees Affairs, Moeen Al-Marabi, a member of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement parliamentary bloc, told Arab News.
President Aoun said: “We are launching an initiative … and it has to succeed, because if it doesn’t … there is a catastrophe, we want to say it with all frankness, and this is the reason for my intervention.”
He has held meetings with Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah representative Mohammed Raad MP.
Hariri left Lebanon on Tuesday to attend an economic forum in London on investment and structural reforms in Lebanon. “God willing, we will find solutions,” he said.
“There are those who wish to form a government while others do not. We must give the president the chance to conduct his consultations.
“Everyone will be held accountable if a solution is not reached, not only the president and me.
