The Prime Minister-designate is waiting for President Michel Aoun’s response to the new cabinet proposal that could end nine months of stalemate.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has presented a new cabinet proposal to President Michel Aoun in a move that could end a nine-month hiatus as the country faces economic collapse.
Veteran Sunni politician Hariri has made multiple proposals to Aoun, an ally of the Shiite group Hezbollah, in recent months, but they have not been able to agree on a list.
“Now is the time for the truth,” Hariri, who has been at odds with Aoun over the appointment of ministers since he was appointed in October, told reporters Wednesday after the meeting.
Aoun said in a statement that he would study the proposal to make a decision.
The proposal is for 24 ministers specializing in technocrats, in line with a French initiative that provided for a government capable of implementing reforms that could unblock the foreign aid needed to rescue the nation.
“For me, this government can start rescuing the country and stop the collapse,” Hariri said at the press conference.
The above proposals have also been for a technocratic team. It was not immediately known how the new formation differed or what would happen if Aoun rejected it.
However, Wednesday’s proposal is seen as Hariri’s last attempt to form a cabinet, as he was expected to give up his efforts after a long-supported trip to Egypt.
Saudi-owned television Al Hadath previously reported that Cairo had asked him not to stop, citing his own sources.
Cairo sources said Egypt had promised economic and political support for a new government and that a delegation would travel to Beirut soon.
If the cabinet were rejected and Hariri left, he would leave the country having to look for another Sunni willing to replace him.
Under a sectarian system of power-sharing, the president of Lebanon must be a Maronite Christian and a Sunni Muslim prime minister. With less than a year to go before the scheduled parliamentary elections, few figures could be ready to move forward.
Lebanon has been without a government since the latter resigned after the war August 4: Explosion of the port of Beirut which killed more than 200 people, injured thousands of others and destroyed strips of the city.
In recent months, Hariri and Aoun have exchanged accusations of obstructing government formation, and Hariri accused the Lebanese president and his ally Hezbollah of trying to get a third of cabinet seats based on sectarian and partisan lines.
The Sunni leader has said Aoun’s allies will gain veto power if a third of cabinet seats go to them.
The blockade has deepened the financial crisis, dubbed by the World Bank as one of the deepest depressions in modern history.