Lebanese Government Formation at Impasse
According to sources in the March 14 coalition, the slow process of forming Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s new government may damage both him and the coalition, Elie Hajj reports.
Since last weekend, the political side that nominated Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has been pressing him to announce the cabinet that he sees fit, as long as it is made up of politically unaffiliated figures and technocrats who will not be running in the upcoming parliamentary elections, whose fate is now uncertain.
A key March 14 figure told Al-Monitor, “We support Prime Minister-designate Salam in his mission and we are not burdening him with conditions. We want him to succeed because his success is our success. But we will not back down on what we agreed and demanded of him [forming a non-political government]. We do not want him to make concessions, either. He is not planning to do so, anyway.”
Regarding the time frame to form a new cabinet, the March 14 figure said, “It is not open-ended. Actually, we have started pressing him to complete the matter as soon as possible. ... The passage of time is costly to both him and us.”
What one March 14 figure said in passing was expanded upon by a prominent March 14 politician. He said that Hezbollah and its allies took part in the naming of Salam during the parliamentary consultations because they had no alternative. But just days later, they launched an intimidation campaign against Salam. The campaign was effective, at least with regard to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, who informed the president that he will not join a government that is not approved by Hezbollah. For his part, President Michel Suleiman advised Salam to grant more time to overcome the obstacles hindering cabinet formation.
