Rai Calls on Hariri to Submit New Govt. Lineup to Aoun

Arab World

May 24th, 7:11am

Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat

Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai (NNA)

Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai called Sunday on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form a new government line-up that consists of competent specialists. This came one day after deputies met at the UNESCO Palace to discuss President Michel Aoun’s letter written to parliament and declaring that Hariri could not form a government, as an indirect message that someone else would have to take this role. However, Rai on Sunday urged Hariri to quickly present to Aoun a new government lineup and to agree on “the structure, portfolios, and names based on the standards of a government of nonpartisan specialists in which no party enjoys hegemony.” In October, Hariri was nominated to form a cabinet after Hassan Diab's government resigned in the wake of the massive Beirut port explosion, which killed 200 people and damaged large swathes of the capital. Since then, Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over cabinet positions, blocking the formation of a government, with observers saying Aoun’s son-in-law and MP Gebran Bassil hold sway over the president. During Sunday’s mass service in Bkirki, the Patriarch criticized the failure to form the government in the wake of economic, social, and financial crises. “The pretexts do not justify not forming the government, and what powers allow the disruption of state institutions?” During his sermon, Rai also mentioned “the clash on the Nahr el-Kalb highway between some Lebanese and displaced Syrians heading to the presidential vote ballot boxes.” He said what happened was caused by the provocation of the sentiments of the Lebanese in an area full of martyrs who fell in battles with the Syrian army, and at a time the fate of the issue of the detainees in Syrian prisons is still unknown. He called on the Syrian refugees to return home because they are now ordinary citizens. “The Syrian regime must understand the Lebanese situation and organize the return of its citizens,” he stressed.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2989186/rai-calls-hariri-submit-new-govt-lineup-aoun