The vice-president of Courant du Futur Moustapha Alloush considered possible the withdrawal of Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri in the event of failure of the mission of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian who should arrive tomorrow in Lebanon.
This one will try to unblock the file of formation of the next government with a series of interviews in particular with the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and the President of the Chamber Nabih Berri.
The pressure was further accentuated yesterday with the remarks published by a French diplomatic source in the Saudi newspaper Al Shark al Awsat which indicated that the minister might not meet Saad Hariri during his visit to Lebanon, inflicting a real snub on him. The same source told the Saudi daily that the prime minister designate would be content with words and not deeds to unblock the current situation.
A country without a government as the economic crisis hits it hard
Lebanon has been without government since the resignation, on August 10, of outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
The formation of a new government is considered as one of the preconditions for the relaunch of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in order to obtain the release of financial aid from the international community in the face of the economic crisis that Lebanon is going through.
Following Mustafa Adib’s failure to form a cabinet, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned following major protests in October 2019, was tasked with forming a new government in October 2020.
In an attempt to unblock the situation, the former prime minister promised the Amal movement to allocate the portfolio of the finance ministry to a member of the Shiite community. He also reiterated that Lebanon could do without a state of default, thus denying the gravity of the economic crisis however experienced by the population, with 55% of it now living below the poverty line while the economic recession has reached 29% according to some reports for the year 2020.
However, Saad Hariri’s proposals for an 18-member cabinet clash with the Presidency of the Republic, who points out that if the Shiite and Sunni communities choose their representatives, the Christian representatives in the new cabinet would also be chosen by the former. designated minister. General Aoun de facto considers that the current proposals of the Prime Minister contravene both the Lebanese constitution and the national pact.
The latter, for his part, accuses the head of state of wanting to obtain a blocking third party within his new cabinet.
