Hariri rejects 32-man cabinet accuses Hezbollah of being behind it

Hezbollah has returned to the approach of focusing its attacks on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in an attempt to divert attention from its standoff with President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement, sources close to Hariri have suggested in remarks to al-Hayat newspaper.

Hariri meanwhile told FPM chief MP Jebran Bassil that he will not accept the idea of forming a 32-minister cabinet “no matter what happens because Hezbollah is behind it,” Asharq al-Awsat daily reported.

Hezbollah “wants to impose it on the PM-designate, who does not want to introduce new norms in the formation of governments,” the newspaper said.

Senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq admitted that “the 32-minister format  was aimed at allocating a share for the  Consultative Gathering in the cabinet .The so called Consultative Gathering is the name of the block of Hezbollah’s Sunni MPs . The block  was  created after the elections , because each one of the MPs ran on  a different ticket . PSP leader called Hezbollah’s  Sunni move move ” The Sunni invention:”

Hezbollah secretary-general’s political aide Hussein al-Khalil meanwhile told al-Akhbar newspaper that “the party’s leadership has no decision or intention to attack the PM-designate,” after several Hezbollah officials criticized Hariri in recent days.

“Despite everything, Hezbollah still believes that Hariri is the right PM for this period,” Khalil added.

In a small country  of 4 million people  like Lebanon  there is absolutely no need for this size cabinet according to analysts, ” Take China  with 1.4 billion people only has a cabinet of  24 ministers and commissioners”, Ali Hussein a political analyst told Ya Libnan, , ” Even the United States with 330 million people and with the largest economy in the world has only 15 cabinet members “, Hussein added