Lebanon .. Scenarios after the political settlement of the government

Afif Diab-Beirut

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday set a date for binding parliamentary consultations with parliamentary blocs and independent lawmakers.

That date has long been waiting in Lebanon since Saad Hariri resigned on October 29 as a result of pressure from the 47-day popular movement, which has plunged the country into a political conflict that seems to be coming to an end, observers say.

The date for binding parliamentary consultations came after a political settlement that led to the prior agreement on the name of businessman Samir Al-Khatib, as a candidate for the presidency of the new government.

The agreement took a long time from negotiations between Hizbullah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement, and with caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Mixed government
According to leaks from participating sources, the agreement includes the formation of a mixed government of experts and politicians, not exceeding 24 ministers, and that each party is represented by a minister of state, and that the government does not offer to hold early elections or merely discussed, and that its attention is focused on addressing the economic situation, and not She is over nine months old.

Information on the settlement adds that the Free Patriotic Movement will not name its president Gebran Bassil as a minister, and that the SPLM will have its share.

Hariri had previously announced his refusal to take over the premiership unconditionally, insisting on his position to accept the nomination of the head of the government of technocrats or nomination of others, which happened as the chances of Khatib rose after the tide in tense political negotiations, where he received at the end of Hariri's recommendation to him where his parliamentary bloc will nominate the candidate Presumably, the Future Movement will participate in government with technocrat ministers.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt announced that his party would not participate in the government, but would only submit a list of names to choose from the president in charge of the Druze sect, as well as the Lebanese Forces Party, which, before agreeing on Khatib, had previously declared its opposition to a government not composed of party specialists. .

Easy and does not hinder
The member of the political bureau in the Future Movement, Nazih Khayat, said that Hariri did not give up his condition and declared his refusal to form a government without technocrats.

Khayyat explained to Al Jazeera Net that Hariri facilitates the birth of a government, and that his obligation to pre-announce and name it to someone before the parliamentary consultations heretical constitutional.

He stressed that Hariri and the Future Bloc will announce the name of their candidate in the consultations, stressing that the Future Movement will not participate in the names of political figures representing him, but will nominate experts and specialists.

Realistic demands
For his part, sees political analyst Michel Abu Najm that the atmosphere is positive to reach a techno-political government, and says in an interview with the island Net that the risk of financial collapse appeared practical, which prompted the political forces to accelerate the production of a solution.

He pointed out that the popular movement can not ignore the presence of political forces and concerns, and therefore no longer absurd demands acceptable but only real demands achievable, considering that the priority today is to resolve the economic crisis, and that the movement will be represented in the new government.

Mobility in the Lookout
According to political activist in the movement, Gad Shahrour, the settlement over the name of a new Lebanese prime minister and the form of the coming government did not meet his demands, adding to the island Net that the movement began to formulate his objection to the political settlement between what he calls the forces of power.

He considered that the movement will also tend to announce escalatory steps for the new confrontation, and sees in the naming of Khatib and the form of agreement on his name only Dhar ash in Laayoune.

Shahrour adds that the movement's objection will take shape very soon, and that his groups are coordinating among themselves to form a force of pressure and a total rejection of a settlement that does not meet what he has been seeking for a month and a half.

He affirms that the movement continues to escalate until its demands are met, describing what is being said about the consensus of the major parties on the form and content of the new government as being out of reality, and that the political forces controlling the administration of power are completely separated from what is happening on the street.

Shahrour said that the demand of the popular movement was clear from the beginning: a technocratic government working to hold early parliamentary elections, prosecute the corrupt, and recover the looted funds, explaining that the timing of parliamentary consultations and what was agreed upon between the forces of power "does not concern us."

Constitutional heresy?
Prior to the parliamentary consultations on Khatib's name as prime minister, the consensus received a political attack from former prime ministers who issued a statement denouncing what they described as the serious breach of the Taif Agreement and the constitution in letter and spirit.

In a statement, they considered such an agreement an attack on the powers of deputies to nominate the president-designate through binding parliamentary consultations, and on the powers of the prime minister when he is tasked to form a government after the necessary consultations.

They added that ignoring the resignation of Prime Minister Hariri's government and neglecting the binding parliamentary consultations to name the prime minister-designate, while denying the people's continued demands for nearly fifty days, is a disregard for the demands of the Lebanese and ignored their will by the President of the Republic.

In a clear criticism of Samir al-Khatib, their statement said that any candidate for prime minister agrees to go into consultations on the form of the government and its members before being appointed, and accept to be tested by an examining committee that is not qualified or constitutionally empowered, but also contributes to the breach of the Constitution, and to weaken and hit the site Prime Minister.