A well-informed minister, who has been following-up on intermittent contacts to form a new government, said he was fearing a political deadlock at the peak of the economic and financial crisis.
The minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the concerned parties were urgently required to agree on a rescue government that could stop the deteriorating situation, adding that communication over the appointment of a new prime minister were currently interrupted.
He also questioned President Michel Aoun’s stalling in setting a date for parliamentary consultations and stressed that the delay in the designation of the premier-designate was “no longer acceptable.”
All parties have to recognize that the birth of the government should lead to a “positive shock” that would meet the demands of the popular movement, the minister underlined.
The senior minister, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that most of the channels of communication were closed, and that the road to the presidential palace was “politically” blocked, in light of Aoun’s insistence on forming a mixed government of specialists and politicians.
He noted that the positions of the country’s main political parties were clear and divided between “a team that insists on forming a government of politicians and technocrats, and another that believes that the government of experts is inevitable.”
Quoting caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the minister said that the Lebanese people “no longer accept us, and don’t want to hear from us.”
“The people have the right to raise their voice; and this obliges us to meet their demands, and work immediately to provide solutions to their problems,” he quoted Hariri as saying, adding that the caretaker prime minister did not understand some parties’ rejection of forming a government of technocrats.”