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Dubai: A month after the signing of the Doha Agreement which called for forming a national unity government, a new Cabinet has yet to see the light of day while each camp blames the other for the deadlock.
The opposition says obstacles to forming the new government are entirely from the parliamentary majority, while the majority says the opposition is delaying the new government to weaken the newly-elected president Michel Sulaiman.
"The majority is not convinced about implementing the Doha agreement in its entirety... The problem will be solved once the majority understands the importance of a just way to share power," said Antoine Nasrallah, spokesperson of the Free Patriotic Movement, led by General Michel Aoun, and major opposition party.
Nasrallah blamed the parliamentary majority, led by the head of the March 14 movement Sa'ad Al Hariri, for not committing to the Doha Agreement that ended Lebanon's political stalemate. "We wanted a new government yesterday [at the earliest]," he told Gulf News.
The spokesperson said that the majority in the government had been delaying the formation of the new government because "it is afraid of formulating a new elections law".
Another reason for the delay, he said, was an internal disagreement within the majority as to which bloc would receive the key portfolios of finance, foreign affairs, interior and defence, also known as sovereign portfolios.
"Third, there are regional and international factors that are [standing in the way]," he added, saying that some politicians wanted to wait and see the progress of Syrian-Israeli negotiations and a possible Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Sheba'a farms, which could lead the majority to renew its calls for Hezbollah to disarm.
"There are those [in the majority] who have rejected the Doha Agreement [believing] that it came at the expense of their allies," he said, adding that there was a "Saudi Arabian element that is standing in the way".
General Aoun will insist on the finance ministry, said Nasrallah, adding that the majority would not approve it because of a fear of the impact of such a decision on the parliamentary elections. "There is a lot that needs to be exposed about thefts and [corruption] in the ministry since 1992," he said.
Nuhad Al Mashnooq, Lebanese political analyst and a confidante of majority leader Sa'ad Hariri, said the opposition was dealing with the situation from the perspective of a victor following "the militant acts in Beirut" through its insistence on two sovereign portfolios.
"The majority is not obliged to give in to the illogical demands, and is acting accordingly," he said. On the other hand, he added, the lack of progress in Saudi-Syrian and Saudi-Iranian relations was also delaying the formation of the government. "The situation is not encouraging".
"What we are sure of is that the calm is not holding... Maybe it is time for foreign intervention, perhaps from Qatar, if not now then in about a week," he said.
George Nassif, columnist in the Lebanese daily Al Nahar, said there was an effort to undermine the powers of the president of Lebanon, which was one of the major hurdles to forming a unity government. "Some sides want to sideline the president to the position of a referee," he said.
Nassif added that it was unlikely that president Michel Sulaiman would give in to General Aoun's demands. "Perhaps he can convince him to take the ministry of justice," he said.
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