After months of political wrangling, Lebanon looked on Monday on the verge of a new government as the Lebanese Forces party declared it would take part despite being offered an “unjust” share of cabinet seats.
LF leader Samir Geagea said the ministerial portfolios offered to his party represented a “very big injustice” when compared with the size of its enlarged parliamentary bloc and the ministries offered to other groups.
But the LF had nevertheless decided to take part “to continue to work from inside the government to achieve our goals,” he told a news conference.
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has been trying to form the new government since a May parliamentary election, with rivalry between the LF and President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) - both Christian groups - seen as the main obstacle.
The delay has held up economic reforms that have been put off for years but are now seen as more pressing than ever.
Lebanon is wrestling with the world’s third largest public debt-to-GDP ratio, stagnant growth and what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said are increasing vulnerabilities within its financial system.
The election produced a parliament tilted in favor of Hezbollah. Together, Hezbollah and its political allies secured more than 70 of the 128 seats. The LF nearly doubled its number of MPs, winning 15 seats.
Hezbollah is expected to take control of the health ministry, the most significant cabinet post it has held, and to increase its number of ministers to three from two in the outgoing cabinet.
The group also wants to see one of its Sunni allies installed as a minister in the new government of 30 ministers, two senior officials familiar with the matter said.
Hariri has so far resisted this demand.
One of the officials said the Sunni issue may hold up a final agreement but would not derail it. A second political source familiar with Hezbollah’s demands said there would be no government unless one of its Sunni allies became a minister.
Later Monday, Minister Melhem Riachi, an LF official, presented Hariri with the party’s list of ministerial candidates.
“Hariri contacted Geagea and thanked him for his efforts and the great sacrifices he offered to facilitate the birth of the government for the interest of Lebanon in this difficult situation we live,” he told reporters after meeting the PM.
