Najib Mikati speaking after his meeting with Michel Aoun yesterday. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Tuesday showed his willingness, once again, to form a new cabinet, denying accusations of governmental deadlock by President Michel Aoun, the state-run National News Agency reported.
According to the NNA, Mikati said in an interview with local media that “if I did not want to form a government, I would not have presented a ministerial list the day after the binding parliamentary consultations.”
Describing his relationship with the president as "good,” Mikati also stressed that the composition of the new cabinet may be subject to change depending on the consultations he conducts with Aoun.
Mikati also indicated that he had accepted Aoun’s appointment of two ministers who would be replaced in the caretaker cabinet, as they are close to Aoun and his party, the Free Patriotic Party, noting that, however, he wanted to obtain the support of Akkar’s Sunni deputies and the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Joumblatt, in order for the government to obtain the required confidence.
A leaked list of the cabinet lineup would renew the terms of most current caretaker ministers with the exception of caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad, caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil, caretaker Minister for the Displaced Issam Charafeddine and caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam. It is unclear over which two ministers Mikati and Aoun are in disagreement.
Two options have been put forward by Mikati and Aoun respectively, without any progress in the negotiations so far: either the replacement of two ministers in the caretaker cabinet, or the expansion of this cabinet from 24 to 30 ministers by incorporating six ministers of state, in order to give the future team a political consistency.
President Michel Aoun on Monday indicated that he is working for the formation of a new government before his mandate ends on Oct. 31.
Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni body in Lebanon, had voiced strong but implicit criticism of Aoun, whose term of office expires on Oct. 31, pointing to a “circumvention” of the presidential deadline and a “challenge to the legitimacy of the outgoing government.”
