President Michel Aoun is working on a solution to the cabinet crisis, and has informed his visitors that he might send a letter to Parliament for examining constitutional measures that could push all parties to assume responsibility in resolving the stalemate, informed sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat on Thursday.
“Aoun believes that there should be an exit (to the cabinet crisis) soon, because he believes that the latest developments began to damage his powers and are driving the country towards bigger crises,” the sources said.
A proposal to form a 32 instead of a 30-member cabinet has so far failed to produce a breakthrough.
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has not yet expressed his stance, although both Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri have backed the idea.
The initiative, which was first made by caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, stipulates adding two ministers to the proposed 30-member line up - One representing the Christian minorities and the second the Allawite sect.
Commenting on the proposal, caretaker Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who is close to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, said: “We have not been given the proposal’s details. We are still attached to our position of supporting a national unity government, which includes all parties.”
MP Michel Moussa from Berri’s parliamentary bloc denied reports saying the March 8 alliance was planning to withdraw its nomination for Hariri to form the next government. “No such article in the Lebanese Constitution allows this measure,” he said.
