President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Monday engaged in a “war of words,” reflecting tensions between them and a widening gap over the makeup of a new government badly needed to enact reforms and rescue Lebanon’s crumbling economy.
The tensions between Aoun and Hariri, less than a week after the premier-designate submitted a draft Cabinet lineup to the president, and a raging juidicial row sparked by a prosecutor’s charges filed against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers for negligence in the Beirut Port explosion, have dashed hopes for the formation of a new government ahead of a new visit to Lebanon by French President Emmanuel Macron next week.
Macron is scheduled to visit Beirut on Dec. 22-23, marking his third trip to the crises-stricken country since the port blast.
Hariri issued a statement Monday shedding light for the first time on wide differences with Aoun over the shape of the Cabinet, including a demand for a veto power by the president and the Free Patriotic Movement. Hariri, who staunchly rejects granting any party veto power in the next government, also implicitly blamed Aoun’s son-in-law, FPM leader MP Gebran Bassil, for the obstruction of the Cabinet formation.
Hariri also disclosed that Aoun wanted a government in which all political parties are represented, which runs contrary to the premier-designate’s decision to exclude representatives of those parties.
The statement issued by Hariri’s media office was in response to an “open letter” addressed by Aoun’s adviser, former minister Salim Jreissati, to the premier-designate. In the “open letter” published in An-Nahar newspaper Monday, Jreissati blamed Hariri for the delay in the Cabinet formation.
“The prime minister-designate met with the president of the republic 12 times, in a relentless attempt to reach an understanding on the formation of the government. Each time, he would express his satisfaction with the discussion, but unfortunately, things would change when Premier Hariri left Baabda Palace,” the statement said.
The statement pointed out that Hariri wanted “a government of nonpartisan specialists to stop the collapse of the country and rebuild what was destroyed by the port explosion” in line with the French initiative designed to steer Lebanon out of its worst economic and financial crisis since the 1975-90 Civil War.
“For his part, the president is asking for a government in which all political parties are represented, whether those who nominated the prime minister-designate or those that objected to his nomination, which will inevitably lead to controlling it and repeating the experiences of several governments controlled by quotas and political tensions,” the statement added.
Hariri, during his last visit to Baabda Palace last Wednesday, presented Aoun with “a complete government lineup with names and portfolios, including four names from the list that the president presented to the prime minister-designate in their second meeting, a list that includes the names of candidates, men and women, considered suitable for the position by the president,” the statement said.
In what was seen as rejection of Hariri’s Cabinet lineup, Aoun handed the prime minister-designate “a complete Cabinet proposal containing a distribution of portfolios on the basis of clear principles.”
The statement noted that Hariri had an “integrated program” to implement reforms that was waiting for Aoun’s signature of the Cabinet formation decrees.
“Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, since his designation to form the government, has not stopped communicating with international funds, international financing institutions and the governments of brotherly and friendly countries, and now has an integrated program to launch a well-studied mechanism to stop the collapse and rebuild what was destroyed by the port explosion, implement reforms and approve essential laws such as the capital control law,” the statement said.
“All this awaits the signature of the president of the republic on the decrees to form the government and putting aside the partisan interests pressuring him, especially the demand of a blocking third [veto power] by one party, which will never happen under any pretext,” it added. It was clearly referring to the FPM, which along with Aoun, was reported to demanding seven ministers in the proposed 18-member Cabinet that would grant it a veto power, or one-third of the 18 ministers plus one.
The statement emphasized that Hariri’s goal was not to become prime minister, nor to form just any government, but rather to stop the country’s economic collapse and reconstruct Beirut after the massive Aug. 4 explosion that devastated Beirut Port, damaged half of the capital, killed nearly 200 people and injured thousands.
“This can only happen by implementing reforms that persuade the Lebanese and the international community to pull the country out from the pit in which it has been stumbling for a year and a half,” the statement said. “It would be better for [Aoun’s] adviser to address his letter to the party responsible for delaying the formation, which is steps away from his office in the presidential palace,” it added, referring to Bassil who reportedly has an office at Baabda Palace.
Responding to Hariri’s statement, the presidency’s media office said Aoun objected to the premier-designate’s unilateral decision to name ministers, especially Christian ministers, without an agreement with the president.
“The objection expressed by the president of the republic was based mainly on the method of distributing ministerial portfolios among the sects, and the proposed names were not discussed,” said a statement issued by the presidency’s media office.
“The president of the republic saw that the criteria are not uniform in the distribution of the portfolios, and he asked the PM-designate to reconsider them. President Aoun also objected to Prime Minister Hariri's unilateral naming of ministers, especially the Christian ministers, without an agreement with the president, noting that the Constitution stipulates that the formation of the government takes place by agreement between the president of the republic and the PM,” the statement said.
It added that Aoun did not deliver a list of names of potential ministers, rather, he proposed during the discussion a set of names that were included in a paper that the PM-designate presented for review.
According to the statement, Aoun never presented the names of partisan candidates for the Cabinet. “He was asking the PM-designate to necessarily consult with the heads of parliamentary blocs who would give his government confidence and cooperate with him in the reform bills that the government intended to adopt,” the statement said.
It added that Aoun never mentioned the control of the decision-making by parties involved or repeating the experiences of several governments controlled by the factors of quotas and political tensions. “His concern first and foremost was to reach a homogenous government that would be able to face the difficult conditions the country is going through, which require flexibility in dealing with frankness and realism and not stubbornness and distortion of facts,” the presidency’s statement added.
Later Monday night, Hariri’s media office issued a statement denying that the premier-designate acted unilaterally to name Christian ministers as claimed by the presidency’s statement.
“The premier-designate received a list of candidates’ names for the Cabinet from the president in the second meeting between them and he chose four names of Christian figures, contrary to the [Baabda] palace’s statement that the premier-designate unilaterally named Christian ministers,” said the statement issued by Hariri’s media office.
It added that Hariri also received from the president a specific proposal to reconsider the distribution of portfolios and to communicate with parliamentary blocs in a way that would lead to represent them in the Cabinet lineup and secure a veto power to one of the parties.
The statement hoped that the presidency would issue instructions to stop manipulating the Cabinet formation process and to fine-tune advisers in order to facilitate the formation process. “Top priority is to emerge from the crisis and its economic repercussions and put the country on the real rescue path,” it added.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
