BEIRUT: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri said Tuesday that the formation of a government was “very close.”
“I know that the formation of the government has taken too long, but we will be able to form it, God willing,” Hariri said during a speech at the Grand Serail. “We are very close to that.”
Hariri was tasked with forming a government on May 24 and he said at the time he wanted to form a “national entente government.”
At around 2:30 p.m., local media reported that Hariri met with caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, Speaker Nabih Berri's top political aide, to talk government formation.
Meanwhile, local media reported that Berri said "there is progress" in the formation process. Berri's comments came from Geneva, where he is participating in the 139th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly.
Two major obstacles blocking Hariri’s efforts to form a Cabinet have been that of Christian representation and Druze representation.
The Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement, the country’s two main Christian parties, have each put forward irreconcilable demands for ministerial representation of the Christian sect.