Cabinet formation crisis appears to be targeting President Aoun, LF

Lebanese Forces sources stressed on Wednesday to al-Joumhouria daily that the obstacles created by some parties in hampering the formation of a new cabinet are aimed at undermining President Michel Aoun by preventing him from exercising his role in establishing a strong State, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

“The current crisis to line up a cabinet goes beyond the conflicts over allocation of ministerial portfolios. It stems from a strategic nature linked to preventing President Michel Aoun from an attempt to build a State,” LF sources told the daily.

“It is obvious that their specifications of a President is to be a fighter in Aleppo not a President of the Republic in Lebanon,” added the sources in reference to Hezbollah fighters fighting alongside the Syrian regime in Syria.

In another possible reference to Hezbollah the sources added :
“The party obstructing the formation is not used to having a strong president who is capable of holding negotiations based on his constitutional rights and strong alliances. Who refuses to bargain on his relations with allies, the Lebanese Forces at the forefront.”

“The obstructing party is not used to seeing a president who practices his role as a real partner in forming a government,” they added.

President Aoun is reportedly outraged over the stalled efforts to form a new government one month after his election and is mulling the formation of a “realistic” cabinet shall the process witness further stalemates, media reports said Wednesday.

Sources who are well informed about the negotiations to line-up a cabinet, said that Aoun will not tolerate to wait too long for the formation process to be complete and refuses “exhausting the momentum that his term had witnessed” after his election on October 31.

Christian medians said that the conflict over portfolios could be solved by allotting the public works ministry to the Lebanese Forces, the health ministry to Speaker Nabih Berri and the education ministry to Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh. They described this distribution as “fair.”

Last month, the parliament elected Aoun, a former general, as president ending a two-and-half-year deadlock that left Lebanon without a president.

PM designate Saad Hariri is still facing obstacles in forging a line-up that balances Lebanon’s delicate sectarian-based political system.