Lebanese efforts to end government formation crisis continue
BEIRUT — The media office of the Lebanese Prime Minister-designate, Mustapha Adib, issued a statement on Thursday confirming his goal of forming a technocratic government that will satisfy the Lebanese people and the Arab and international community.
The ultimate goal of the new government, said the statement, with be to shepherd Lebanon through its many crises and to implement long-overdue economic and financial reforms.
The statement explained Adib’s recent reticence in immediately forming a new government as the PM-designate’s awareness of the great responsibility entrusted to him. Adib spent the time, according to the statement, consulting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on ways to secure the necessary external support to buoy Lebanon’s collapsing economy.
On Tuesday, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri presented a proposal to solve the government formation crisis in accordance with the current sectarian power-sharing system. The proposal nominated an independent Shiite candidate to run the Ministry of Finance. Hariri himself is a Sunni.. “However, this does not mean that I agreed on taking this position permanently by a Shiite figure,” declared Hariri.
The French Foreign Ministry welcomed what it described as “Hariri’s brave declaration”, indicating that this declaration is an opportunity to get out of the government formation crisis. Furthermore, all parties should realize its importance, so that a government can be formed now, the French Ministry state.
Hariri’s proposal comes at a time when Adib is seeking to make changes to the way in which the sectarian power-sharing system allots ministerial positions.