Al Liwaa newspaper quoted visitors to PM Nagib Mikati that he is very disappointed with the pressure that is being imposed on him by Hezbollah and MP Michel Aoun and that they are not leaving him with any room that will allow him to form the cabinet .
The visitors also reported that Mikati is not convinced over keeping the ministry of communications with Aoun and is seriously thinking about personally taking over this ministry in addition to his PM role and delegating it later to a Catholic or an Orthodox State minister that is allocated to him , similar to what the slain PM Rafik Hariri did with the ministry of finance when he formed his last cabinet .
Mikati is also reportedly not getting any cooperation from Aoun or Hezbollah over the list of names for the ministries allocated to them. Hezbollah reportedly only gave him the name of Faisal Karami as the sixth Sunni minister
Mikati reportedly informed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during their first meeting after being appointed as PM designate that the issue of the Karami family representation in the government should be settled either by resolving the differences between Omar Karami and MP Ahmed Karami or by allowing the former prime minister to choose a representative from outside the family.
Mikati reportedly considered the issue of the Karamis closed after discussing it with Nasrallah and not subject to any further discussions.
Faisal Karami is the son of former PM Omar Karami who was a rival of Mikati during the 2009 parliamentary elections. Mikati won the Tripoli seat because of the support of March 14 alliance
According to local reports Hezbollah is meddling in Mikati’s choice for a Sunni representative in the cabinet to embarrass him in his hometown and shatter his relations with his ally Ahmed Karami.
Syria is reportedly urging the Lebanese to form the cabinet , but Hezbollah according to the reports has a different agenda and is awaiting Iran’s instructions on this issue.
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