Hizbullah reiterated it was not acting a “mediator” between Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun in the stalled Cabinet formation.
As-Safir newspaper on Thursday, citing Hizbullah sources, said the Shiite group called on Hariri to “open direct dialogue” with Aoun to discuss his demands.

“Even if Hizbullah was asked to facilitate negotiations between Hariri and Aoun, it will not succumb to pressure,” one source told As-Safir.

While President Michel Suleiman believed that the obstacle to government formation was internal and not external, the Opposition made sure to express certainty about the “existence of an external knot that is delaying formation of a government.”

As-Safir quoted well-informed Opposition circles as asking: What prevents Hariri from presenting a “compromise formula” such as the premier-designate would reappoint Aoun’s son-in-law Jebran Bassil as telecommunications minister in exchange for giving up his demand for a key Cabinet portfolio, an offer likely to be accepted by Aoun.

Al-Liwaa newspaper, meanwhile, uncovered that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah contacted Aoun prior to his latest press conference and expressed his desire “not to close the door in the face of Hariri without being obliged to abandon his demands on government formation.”