BEIRUT: The question of normalizing ties with Syria is the latest obstacle facing premier-designate Saad Hariri’s efforts to form a new Cabinet, political sources said Thursday.
With yet another hurdle to overcome, one political source said, “there are no positive signals of an imminent government formation.”
“This means that there will be no government before or after Eid al-Adha for now,” the source told The Daily Star.
“[MP] Teymour [Joumblatt] came to Hariri and told him that [the Progressive Socialist Party] is still demanding all three ministers allocated to the Druze sect,” a source close to the prime minister-designate told The Daily Star.
The issue stems from former MP Walid Joumblatt’s demands to appoint the three ministers, and efforts to block his rival, Lebanese Democratic Party head Talal Arslan, from obtaining one of the Druze ministerial seats.
Moscow entered the Lebanese fracas in recent days, looking to help find a solution to the issue of Druze representation in the new Cabinet, with the third Lebanese official in as many weeks visiting the Russian capital.