The “promised meeting” between Aoun and Hariri deepens their dispute and prolongs the government crisis

The visit of the prime minister appointed to form a government, Saad Hariri, to the Baabda Palace to meet with Lebanese President Michel Aoun yesterday (Monday), failed to reach an understanding between them to announce the expected formation of a government, amid an escalation of Hariri. who confirmed that “the designated president is not his job so that no one completes the papers.” Referring to a document that Aoun sent him on Sunday night, which includes boxes to fill in with the names of the ministers, folders and a reference to name them.
A list war broke out after Hariri’s 18th visit to the Baabda Palace, when he distributed to journalists a list of government formation that the Presidency had deposited a hundred days ago, to which the Republican Palace responded by distributing a copy of the paper. which was sent to Hariri, who said he was amazed by “the words and style of the designated prime minister, in form and substance.”
Hariri met Aoun yesterday afternoon at the Baabda Palace and discussed the government formation file with him. After the meeting, Hariri said: “In my last meeting with His Excellency the President, we agreed to meet again on Monday. Unfortunately, however, yesterday he sent me a complete assortment of it, with a distribution of bags to sects and parties, with a letter telling me that it is advisable to fill it, “noting that the paper” included a third of his political team, With 18 ministers, 20 or 22 ministers, His Excellency asked me to suggest names for the portfolios according to the sectarian and partisan distribution he attended. Hariri emphasized that the role “is not acceptable because the designated president is not his job so that no one completes the papers, nor is it the job of the president to form a government”, resorting to a summer residence: “because our constitution clearly says that the President-designate forms government and names names, and is discussing its formation with His Excellency the President.
He said: “On this basis, I respectfully informed His Excellency that I consider his letter as if it had not been, and sent it to him, and also informed him that I will keep a copy of it for the date. “Al-Hariri noted that he told Aoun that” my training has been in his hands for 100 days and that I am ready now, as I said publicly before, for any proposal and amendment of names and bags, and even with his insistence on the The Ministry of the Interior provided him with a solution. ”Unfortunately, his answer is clear: the third blockade.
He continued: “My goal is one, to end the collapse and suffering of the Lebanese.” And I asked His Excellency the President to listen to the pain of the Lebanese and give the country its only and last chance, with a government of specialists to implement reforms and stop the collapse, without interruptions or narrow partisan considerations.
He added: “Because His Excellency the President said in his last speech that I only presented general lines to you, I will distribute to you the full assortment of names and bags that I presented to you here in Baabda on December 9, 2020, which is to say, more than of 100 days, and I leave the judgment on them to the public opinion ».
The Lebanese presidency responded to Hariri, saying it was “shocked by the words and style of the designated prime minister, in form and substance.” He said in a statement that “the President of the Republic and based on his powers and his desire to facilitate and accelerate the training process, especially given the harsh conditions the country is going through, sent the designated Prime Minister a document that establishes only the methodology for government formation and includes 4 pillars whose followers lead to the formation of a government by agreement between the President. The Republic and the designated President ”.
He explained that “the first column includes the ministries based on 18, 19 or 20 ministers,” while the second column includes “the distribution of ministries into sects, in accordance with the text of Article 95 of the Constitution.” As for the third column, it includes “the reference to appoint the minister, after the designated prime minister revealed that there are those who nominated their ministers, as originally shown by the formation highlighted by the designated president,” while the fourth column includes a field with names “after agreement on doctrine and name reference has been completed.”
The presidency “regretted that the president-designate, excited, issued a government formation announcement, which he proposed on December 9, 2020, but originally did not obtain the approval of the President of the Republic to complete the essential elements of composition.” She said : “Prime Minister Hariri knows the methodological document well, and previously formed two governments based on it during the era of President Aoun.” Sometimes the name reference does not appear.
The presidency said that “the president of the republic is willing to form a government in accordance with the constitution, and every word spoken by the designated prime minister and before him by the former heads of government about the president of the republic does not form, but rather He makes a speech contrary to the charter and the constitution and it is unacceptable, because his signature to issue the authorship decree is constructive. It is not an advertisement. And he stressed that “it is not allowed to turn the government crisis into a government and order crisis unless there is a prior intention not to form a government for unknown reasons, and we will not speculate about it.”
Hariri’s rejection of Baabda’s newspaper had the support of Sunni leaders, since Deputy Nihad Machnouk considered that Hariri began yesterday “the march to restore the legitimacy of the prime minister with firmness, perseverance and patience,” while the former minister , Major General Ashraf Rifi, considered that “Prime Minister Hariri’s position is a step in the right direction to face the coup. On the constitution and on the country.”
The response war weighed heavily on the Lebanese street, which noted an additional crisis, the first signs of which began with the rise in the dollar exchange rate on the black market, and the taking of people to the streets in protest at the worsening of the crisis, which prompted the head of the Future Movement’s secretary general, Ahmed Hariri, to ask the followers of Prime Minister Hariri in all regions “to stay away” from any movement on the street “, stating that” the movement has no nothing to do with doing with any call “.
Hariri’s press office responded to the presidential statement, lamenting the “inaccuracies” it contained, saying: “Since the appointment of Prime Minister Hariri and the beginning of his meetings with the president of the republic, Michel Aoun, the President of the Republic insisted on each meeting by adhering to his obtaining the third blockade, and this matter has not changed from the beginning until today, that is what all Lebanese know. He added, “However, it is surprising and unacceptable that the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Republic intends to distribute a schedule that has nothing to do with what President Aoun sent to Hariri yesterday (the first), claiming that it was the calendar envoy. “He said:” Out of respect for the minds of Lebanese, we publish the documents as they arrived from the President of the Republic to Prime Minister Hariri “, accompanied by a copy of the documents that were sent to him.
Subsequently, the Information Office of the Presidency of the Republic responded by saying that “the text distributed by the media office of President Saad Hariri dates back to the period of exchange of governmental formulas between the President of the Republic and the designated President, and not the text sent yesterday by President Aoun, which was previously distributed. “