BEIRUT // An impasse over the formation of Lebanon's new cabinet turned ugly and personal yesterday as a key opposition leader declared that a partial defection from the majority alliance had rendered the coalition illegitimate and charged his opponents with making personal attacks.
Michel Aoun told reporters in a press conference that the attacks on the former telecommunications minister, Jibran Bassil, by the majority were personal and that his son-in-law should be returned to his post. The majority alliance, led by the prime minister designate, Saad Hariri, has refused to accept Mr Bassil for any cabinet position because they want their own candidates to run the most lucrative ministry in Lebanon. Mr Hariri's bloc, known as "March 14", also claims that Mr Bassil's loss in the parliamentary elections should disqualify him from such a high-profile ministry.
"I am proud of him [Bassil] as an [party] activist since 1999, as my son-in-law and as a minister," Mr Aoun told a press conference at his home north of Beirut, arguing that attacks on Mr Bassil's record as minister are baseless. "If they criticise him, then they are criticising me," said Mr Aoun, who further claimed that the former minister's time in office "put an end to stealing and stopped the mafia within the telecom ministry".
Mr Aoun appeared furious about recent claims by March 14 supporters that Mr Bassil is linked to an internet service provider in the Barouk region of Lebanon that appears to have been compromised by Israeli intelligence gathering. The owner of the accused company is a top opposition official in the Armenian Tashnaq party, which is an ally of Mr Aoun's party. Mr Aoun denounced Mr Hariri's efforts to form a cabinet with an allocation of seats designed to allow the opposition the right to veto major legislation. The Hizbollah-led opposition insisted on a power-sharing agreement that allocates 15 cabinet seats to the majority, ten to the opposition and five independent ministers loyal to the president, Michel Suleiman. But in the wake of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's decision to withdraw from the March 14 alliance, Mr Aoun has claimed that the formula is no longer acceptable.
"You do the math, and you will see that the formula has become 12-10-5-3," Mr Aoun said, with the last three seats going to Mr Jumblatt, who has repeatedly denied he is joining the opposition. Efforts by Mr Hariri to resolve a disagreement that could quickly turn into a feud have included an invitation to Mr Aoun to meet for a lunch, but the personal attacks on Mr Bassil seem to have left the former army chief of staff in no mood for reconciliation.
On Monday, Mr Aoun said he would not meet with Mr Hariri until the latter "stops his crazy [supporters] from attacking me". Although they are nominally in the same opposition alliance, Hizbollah appears to have solidified its cabinet positions and seems to have little enthusiasm for supporting Mr Aoun in his battle with Mr Hariri, according to a supporter of Mr Hariri. Mustafa Alloush, a former MP, said that there was no disagreement with Hizbollah or its allies, the Amal Movement, over the make-up of the cabinet but that the fight with Mr Aoun was likely to scuttle the chances of a government being formed in the immediate future.
"There will be no government formation any time soon, not even after Ramadan," he told The National. "The real problem is Jibran Bassil," he added. "Aoun is impeding the cabinet formation because he insists on the reappointment of his son-in-law, [the former] telecommunications minister Jibran Bassil without anyone attacking him for it." "The national and personal issues are one in the same," he added. "Nobody was attacking Aoun. We were just describing the situation. All that we were saying was that the cabinet formation is impeded because he wants his son-in-law to be reappointed as minister, and his speech today confirmed this reality."
mprothero@thenational.ae
