Picture of Joumblatt and Hariri breaking bread sets Twitter alight
Mr Joumblatt’s pessimism regarding the Lebanese political situation didn’t stop him from enjoying a cheerful dinner on Tuesday with several politicians including Mr Hariri.
Caretaker Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted a picture of the group sitting around a table at a discrete fish restaurant in Beirut’s upscale Sodeco area.
Mr Joumblatt told The National that the fish served at Kelly’s Fish lounge had been very good.
“They really enjoyed their time”, remembers the restaurant owner. “Mr Hariri was taking selfies with everybody”.
Mr Hariri and Mr Joumblatt often have dinner together to discuss recent political developments.
Mr Joumblatt was a close ally of Mr Hariri’s assassinated father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The pair were leading figures in the political grouping against the 15-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon that ended after mass protests in 2005 in the wake of Rafik Hariri’s murder. After the younger Hariri took over his father’s mantle in 2004, the relationship with Mr Joumblatt endured.
However, the pair have not always been so close. In the run-up to the election last year, Messrs Hariri and Joumblatt went months without speaking over an argument regarding the new proportional electoral law to be used for the first time. Mr Joumblatt worried that a proportional system, which Mr Hariri backed, would see the influence of his small sect diminished.
With so much of Lebanese politics agreed in late-night meetings behind closed doors, the media and pundits put significant weight on how regularly, where and with who senior politicians meet.
In the picture, alongside Messrs Khoury and Hariri were Mr Joumbatt and his wife Nora, PSP politician Wael Abou Faour and Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Nazih el Nagari.
The picture of the dinner led to a flurry of excitement on Twitter that it signified an imminent government formation. “God willing, white smoke will rise soon and Walid Beik [a nickname for Walid Joumblatt] will accept to give up the minister of industry”, one user replied to the tweet. “Blessings to you…We would like you to form a cabinet”, wrote another.
The next few days will be crucial in determining whether these wishes come true.
Lebanon's Prime Minister-Designate Saad Hariri is unlikely to form a government in the next few days, despite saying he was confident of a breakthrough eight months after Parliamentary elections, Druze leader Walid Joumblatt told The National on Wednesday.
“Unless he pulls a rabbit out of his hat, Mr Hariri has little chance of forming a government soon,” the head of the Progressive Socialist Party said. “I was recently asked to make concessions and I politely refused.”
Mr Joumblatt said he would not give up the education and industry ministries that his PSP have been promised.
“On a personal level, I have no problem with Mr Hariri. On a political level, there are fundamental differences between us, particularly regarding privatisation: the government is paying a hefty price to private companies to work on the Tripoli refinery and the Deir el Ammar power station” said Mr Joumblatt.
The leader of the Druze, who make up an estimated 8 per cent of the Lebanese population, is not the only one sceptical of a deal and those include members of Mr Hariri’s own Future Movement.
“Mr Hariri is trying to push people to be more optimistic, but I think the obstacles concerning the formation of the government are still essentially the same,” said Moustapha Allouche, member of the Future Movement Political Bureau, referring to the inclusion of other Sunni MPs as demanded by Hezbollah.
Once again, Mr Hariri has said he’s confident of securing a deal to form a new Cabinet after several major setbacks and months of horse trading.
On Tuesday, Mr Hariri said that "matters are positive and will become clear within two days... This week is decisive, positively or negatively," adding that he was “cautiously optimistic”.
It’s not the first time that Mr Hariri has announced a decisive week or the imminent formation of a Cabinet. In early October, he threatened to resign if the government wasn’t formed within 10 days. The deadline passed, but he remained.
Mr Hariri's optimism was echoed by MP Abdul Rahim Mrad, who told The National that he believes that the government would be formed in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Mr Mrad is one of the Sunni MPs that Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed party and traditional opponent of Mr Hariri’s Future Movement, has been pushing to include in the government. Mr Hariri, whose own party is usually the Cabinet representative of Sunnis in the country, opposed rivals from his sect being granted seats.
“One of the three names we have suggested to be appointed Minister of State (a junior position within the Lebanese government) will be accepted,” Mr Mrad.
This would be interpreted as a concession by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, said Wissam Lahham, a lecturer in constitutional law at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut.
“According to unofficial political practices in place since 2005, the President gets to nominate three ministers,” he explained. “As Mr Hariri refuses to appoint a Sunni who is not from his camp, Mr Aoun will have to give up one of his three appointees to replace him with a pro-Hezbollah Sunni and end the crisis.”
If they agree, a balance would be struck. Each bloc would control a third of the government: 10 ministers associated with the Free Patriotic Movement, founded by Mr Aoun; 10 ministers would be under Mr Hariri’s wing and the other 10 would be close to Hezbollah.
“As usual, there would be a cold-war type of balance within the government”, says Mr Lahham.
Lebanon’s power-sharing agreement is supposed to give proportional representation to each of the 18 denominations, which is a recurring source of tension in local politics. If one political party controls over one-third of the ministers, it can effectively veto policy or topple the government. This happened in 2011, when 11 ministers from Hezbollah and its allies resigned en-masse as Mr Hariri was in Washington meeting then US president Barak Obama.
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Picture of Joumblatt and Hariri breaking bread sets Twitter alight
Mr Joumblatt’s pessimism regarding the Lebanese political situation didn’t stop him from enjoying a cheerful dinner on Tuesday with several politicians including Mr Hariri.
Caretaker Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted a picture of the group sitting around a table at a discrete fish restaurant in Beirut’s upscale Sodeco area.
Mr Joumblatt told The National that the fish served at Kelly’s Fish lounge had been very good.
“They really enjoyed their time”, remembers the restaurant owner. “Mr Hariri was taking selfies with everybody”.
Mr Hariri and Mr Joumblatt often have dinner together to discuss recent political developments.
Mr Joumblatt was a close ally of Mr Hariri’s assassinated father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The pair were leading figures in the political grouping against the 15-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon that ended after mass protests in 2005 in the wake of Rafik Hariri’s murder. After the younger Hariri took over his father’s mantle in 2004, the relationship with Mr Joumblatt endured.
However, the pair have not always been so close. In the run-up to the election last year, Messrs Hariri and Joumblatt went months without speaking over an argument regarding the new proportional electoral law to be used for the first time. Mr Joumblatt worried that a proportional system, which Mr Hariri backed, would see the influence of his small sect diminished.
With so much of Lebanese politics agreed in late-night meetings behind closed doors, the media and pundits put significant weight on how regularly, where and with who senior politicians meet.
In the picture, alongside Messrs Khoury and Hariri were Mr Joumbatt and his wife Nora, PSP politician Wael Abou Faour and Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Nazih el Nagari.
The picture of the dinner led to a flurry of excitement on Twitter that it signified an imminent government formation. “God willing, white smoke will rise soon and Walid Beik [a nickname for Walid Joumblatt] will accept to give up the minister of industry”, one user replied to the tweet. “Blessings to you…We would like you to form a cabinet”, wrote another.
The next few days will be crucial in determining whether these wishes come true.
