{"id":13881,"date":"2018-09-04T21:24:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T21:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13881"},"modified":"2018-09-04T21:24:27","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T21:24:27","slug":"protests-grow-as-aoun-hariri-seek-end-to-lebanon-impasse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13881","title":{"rendered":"Protests grow as Aoun, Hariri seek end to Lebanon impasse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT:\u00a0A Lebanese man demonstrating outside the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs in Beirut inflicted cuts on his body in protest against his \u201cbad living situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe man, in his 60s, sat in front of security forces guarding the ministry offices as he made his protest.<\/p>\n

\nAn employee at the ministry told Arab News that \u201cit is not the first incident of its kind, but this phenomenon has begun to multiply and is caused by poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA political dispute in Lebanon on the formation of the government is deepening following disagreement on the distribution of portfolios among political rivals.<\/p>\n

\nLebanon is waiting for the government to be finalized so the decisions of the Cedar Conference can be activated. The decisions \u2014 related to economic reforms badly needed by Lebanon \u2014 cannot be activated after six months.<\/p>\n

\nThe pace of contacts and meetings between Saad Hariri, the prime minister-designate, and the political factions accelerated on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the sources close to Hariri, prospects for forming a government \u201care not blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nSources told Arab News that \u201cthe atmosphere is positive, Prime Minister Hariri presented his formula and the president of the republic (Michel Aoun) reviewed and made his remarks on them and things are open to negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nOn the 102nd day of his appointment, Hariri presented a \u201cformula for a national unity government in which no one wins,\u201d as he said after meeting with Aoun on Monday night. Hariri described the \u201cpresented formula\u201d as \u201cpreliminary, and let\u2019s see if we can reach a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAoun\u2019s response came a few hours later, stressing that it was a \u201cpreliminary formula.\u201d A statement issued by his office said that \u201cPresident Aoun made some remarks on this formula based on the principles and criteria he set for the government\u2019s form, which Lebanon\u2019s interests dictate. Aoun will continue to consult with Hariri in preparation for the agreement on the government formula.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAoun\u2019s position was seen by the political forces in disagreement on the number of portfolios that they demand as a \u201cnegative attitude,\u201d prompting sources familiar with Aoun\u2019s position to tell Arab News: \u201cIt does not mean that President Aoun rejected it definitively or blocked the way in front of it, but he showed a series of negotiable observations on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThese sources reiterated Aoun\u2019s position that the government structure should reflect \u201cthe results of the parliamentary elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe first to be affected by Aoun\u2019s comments on the formula appeared to be the Lebanese Forces party. A member of the Forces parliamentary bloc, George Adwan, talked about a rejection by the president and the Free Patriotic Movement for the Forces to have \u201cfour cabinet ministries in the future government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAdwan said that \u201cthe Forces have conceded to the minimum of their rights, but some thought that it was a \u2018Bazaar.\u2019 However, after what happened, we will return to our demand for five ministers with a sovereign portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Lebanese Forces delegated Information Minister Melhem Riashi to meet with Hariri on Tuesday. The Progressive Socialist Party also delegated MP Timur Jumblatt to meet with Hariri. Hariri chaired a meeting of his parliamentary bloc, which was attended by members of the Political Bureau of the Future Movement.<\/p>\n

\nThis political confusion prompted the Lebanese Phalange Party to stress that \u201call those obstructing the formation (of the government) who are steeped in quotas, sizes and gains bear the responsibility of the political instability prevailing in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe party warned in a statement of \u201cthe danger of wasting time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT:\u00a0A Lebanese man demonstrating outside the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs in Beirut inflicted cuts on his body in protest against his \u201cbad living situation.\u201d The man, in his 60s, sat in front of security forces guarding the ministry offices as he made his protest. An employee at the ministry told Arab News that \u201cit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}