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Beirut On Sunday, the Maronite patriarch, Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Ra’i, urged Future Movement leader Saad Hariri, charged with forming a new Lebanese government to succeed Hassan Diab’s government, to avoid secret bilateral agreements and work to form a government quickly to start the process of getting the country out of the financial crisis in which it is embroiled.
On Thursday, the veteran Sunni politician was commissioned to form a government for the fourth time, a year after his resignation, under pressure from popular protests against the ruling elite.
Lebanon is facing the worst financial crisis since the end of the civil war, and the international community refuses to provide support to get out of it unless it implements the necessary reforms that have been on the shelves for years.
Hariri pledged to form a government of specialists to carry out reforms that were emphasized in a French initiative that was advanced last September during President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Beirut, and its goal is to open the door to foreign aid.
The composition of the next Hariri government will consist of 20 ministers instead of 14, as proposed by Mustafa Adib.
Hariri faces great challenges in obtaining approval for ministerial formation due to the sectarian quota system in Lebanon. The government must solve a list of problems, including a banking crisis and a currency devaluation.
On Sunday, the prime minister-designate visited the Baabda Palace, where he met with President Michel Aoun, amid leaks that speak of progress in the government’s file.
Lebanese political circles say the evidence suggests Hariri’s involvement of prominent political forces in the process of forming the government of specialists, raising fears that the Hassan Diab government scenario will be repeated.
The circles said that the information circulating so far is resolving the issue of the composition of the government, which will be made up of 20 ministers instead of 14 as proposed by Mustafa Adeeb. In this, he ran into opposition from the Free Patriotic Movement and the Shiite duo Hezbollah and the Amal movement, which eventually led him to apologize for continuing the task of government formation.
During weekly Sunday Mass, the Patriarch congratulated Hariri and urged him to rebuild the devastated capital, Beirut, after the massive explosion at the port in August that killed nearly 200 people.
Al-Rahi criticized political leaders for delaying talks on forming the government and holding them accountable for the unprecedented economic collapse that drove many Lebanese into poverty. The pastor heads the Church of the Maronite community, of which the head of state must agree to the sectarian quota system.
The Patriarch told Hariri: “O President-designate, go beyond the conditions of political groups and their counter-conditions, and avoid the quagmire of interests, quotas and appetites of politicians and sectarians.”
He added: “We tell you … beware of secret bilateral agreements and promises as they carry with them the seeds of disagreements and disputes at the expense of government success.” “Don’t put the Christians behind your back,” he continued.
Hariri did not mention two prominent Christian blocs, namely the Free Patriotic Movement led by President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, and the Lebanese Forces party led by Aoun’s rival during the civil war, Samir Geagea.
Saad Hariri promised to form a government of specialists to carry out the reforms that were emphasized in a French initiative that was advanced during President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Beirut.
The Free Patriotic Movement attributes its decision to the fact that Hariri is “a politician par excellence”, while a government composed of specialists from A to Z must be formed. As for the former ally of the Hariri Forces Party, he expressed his position conservative saying, “He who tried his mind is broke.”
Observers say the motives of the two sides differ in refusing to appoint Hariri, as the Free Movement has not forgotten Hariri who accepted popular pressure and resigned from the government, turning his back on the pact, against the Forces Party. This stage is to remain on the side of the opposition, given the lack of conviction that the influencers of the current scenario can achieve any progress on the wall of the complex Lebanese crisis.
The skipper called on Hariri to work with Aoun to ensure the reactivation of the French initiative to aid Lebanon and the success of Lebanon’s talks with Israel to demarcate the disputed maritime borders.
The Hariri government faces important tasks, the most important of which is to implement the reforms required from Lebanon, especially the issue of electricity and to combat smuggling on the Syrian-Lebanese borders, and also to achieve a breakthrough at the level of the ongoing negotiations with Israel on the demarcation of the border, which will resume next Wednesday.
The Patriarch reiterated his demand for “neutrality” for Lebanon in the region’s conflicts, in a reference that is widely understood as the Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.
