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BEIRUT: The stalled Cabinet formation process has been put on hold until the New Year as Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai prepares to resume his mediation efforts aimed at clearing the way for a new government eagerly awaited by the Lebanese to rescue them from the worst economic and financial crisis in the countrys history, officials said Sunday.
After holding two meetings this week with President Michel Aoun that have failed to make any headway in the weekslong Cabinet impasse, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri left Beirut over the weekend to spend the New Year's holiday with his family abroad, a clear indication that nothing would happen in the government formation efforts before the start of 2021.
Hariri cited clear complications that had shattered his hopes for a new Cabinet before Christmas after holding his 14th meeting with Aoun Wednesday since he was designated to form a new government on Oct. 22. He said a new government should be formed after the New Year's holiday in order to halt Lebanons economic collapse.
Unruffled by the collapse of his initiative, Rai Sunday said he would continue his endeavor to break the Cabinet deadlock and warned those obstructing the government formation.
We will work again with officials to push the Cabinet formation process forward. This is a demand and a right of the people and this is Lebanons interest, Rai said in a sermon after leading Sundays Mass at his seat in Bkirki. Rescuing Lebanon politically, economically and financially is still possible if a government is formed comprising figures who inspire confidence with their competence, reputation and independence.
I warn all those obstructing the government formation, near and far, that they bear responsibility for putting all constitutional institutions on the disruption path. If there are those betting on the collapse of the state, let them know that this collapse will not benefit them, nor will it open the road to them to seize power, the patriarch added in his remarks, which were carried by the state-run National News Agency.
Hariris two meetings with Aoun this week, the result of Rais mediation bid aimed at facilitating the formation of a new government, followed tensions and the eruption of a war of words between the two leaders who traded barbs over responsibility for the delay in the Cabinet formation.
However, the presidents and the premier-designates unyielding stances on the shape and makeup of the new Cabinet have dealt a blow to Rais efforts, destroying chances for a possible solution to the crisis before next year.
Aouns and Hariris inflexible positions, as well as the failure of Patriarch Rais mediation attempt, have brought the Cabinet formation process back to square one, a political source familiar with the matter told The Daily Star.
Hariris attempts to form a proposed 18-member Cabinet of nonpartisan specialists to carry out reforms have been bogged down by rival factions jockeying for key ministerial seats, as well as lingering rifts with Aoun over the naming of Christian ministers and over who controls three sovereign ministries that deal with security: The Defense, Interior and Justice.
In addition to rejecting granting veto power to any party in the next government, Hariri was also reported to have opposed allotting the Interior and Justice ministries to Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement headed by MP Gebran Bassil.
As part of his mediation attempt, Rai met earlier this month separately with Aoun, Hariri and FPM leader MP Gebran Bassil in a bid to narrow differences between the president and the premier-designate over the shape and makeup of the next government.
In Christmas speeches and sermons, Rai ramped up his diatribe against the ruling political elite, but for the first time he indirectly criticized Aoun and Hariri for not honoring their pledges to accelerate the formation of a government and by setting conditions and counterconditions that have further complicated the process.
We had expected those responsible for the Cabinet formation to be up to the challenges in order to revive the state and institutions and take decisions. But we were surprised by conditions and counterconditions and newly introduced criteria and by linking the formation of Lebanons government to the regions and worlds struggles that have left us without an executive and constitutional authority, thus increasing the collapse, Rai said in his Christmas Mass in Bkirki Friday.
We had hoped that the president and the prime minister-designate will act as a united team and to be free, even temporarily, from all pressures and cooperate in forming a government of nonpolitical specialists in order to gain the confidence of the people and the world and revitalize Lebanon. But our wishes were met with irrelevant conditions at this stage devised by some that were unjustified with a government of specialists, Rai added.
The patriarch, who has been pressing rival political leaders to agree on the swift formation of a Cabinet of independent and nonpartisan experts to enact reforms, said in another Christmas speech: We fully regret the collapse of promises made to us that has brought the Cabinet formation back to square one.
Former Minister Sejaan Azzi, a political adviser to Rai, confirmed that the patriarch would resume next week his mediation efforts in the crisis.
He said Rai did not play the role of a mediator but presented an initiative to rescue Lebanon, renewed his demand to declare Lebanons neutrality and work to help in the formation of a new government.
This initiative hit snags over the unyielding stances of those concerned with the Cabinet formation. But he [Rai] is determined to continue the initiative in new forms and with additional parties in the next few days, Azzi said in an interview with MTV Saturday night.
The patriarch will begin next week a series of contacts aimed at facilitating the government formation process, he said. He added that Rai had informed Arab and international powers about the circumstances and reasons that led to the failure of the Cabinet formation. This does not mean that the initiative is tied to external parties, but the crisis is linked to the regional and international situation, Azzi said.
The formation of a new government to deliver reforms is urgently demanded by the international community, which has linked unlocking billions of dollars in promised aid to the cash-strapped country to the implementation of long-overdue reforms, mainly fighting endemic corruption and conducting a forensic audit of the accounts of the Central Bank and all ministries and public institutions.
The new government will be tasked with enacting structural reforms in order to rescue the countrys ailing economy and rebuild Beirut following the massive Aug. 4 explosion that devastated Beirut Port, destroyed half of the capital, killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands, left 300,000 people homeless and caused losses worth billions of dollars.
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