Parliamentary consultations kicked off at Baabda Palace on Tuesday with Saad Hariri having advance knowledge that he will gain the support of all 71 majority lawmakers for his renomination as prime minister.
In addition to the 71 MPs, two deputies from the Armenian Tashnag party will also rename Hariri for the premiership post.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah refrained from renaming Hariri.

While Berri left the presidential palace in Baabda without making any statements, Aoun came out to announce that differences with Hariri are “enormous.”

“The Change and Reform bloc has reservations about naming Hariri. We did not name anyone to form the government,” Aoun said after consultations with President Michel Suleiman.

Aoun complained that the political “tone is still escalatory,” and urged the various political leaders to commit to dialogue “because it is the only way to salvation.”

MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, told reporters that his bloc did not name anyone as premier.

Raad offered cooperation to form a national unity government.

MP Ali Hassan Khalil from Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc also came out to say that his bloc did not name anyone as premier.

“We will cooperate with the PM-designate and the Lebanese President on the basis of a national unity government based on the 15-10-5 formula,” Khalil told reporters from Baabda.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Farid Makari and former Premier Najib Miqati also named Hariri as premier.

“Reaching national consensus does not mean that the losing party should get the priority in forming a Cabinet; that decision should be taken by the majority,” Makari said.

Miqati, for his part, hoped that various politicians would exert every effort to “remove all obstacles and conditions because the country needs a government that stands up to challenges.”

Before starting the second round of the Parliamentary consultations, President Suleiman invited General Aoun to lunch, in the presence of caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil in an attempt to discuss with FPM’s leader the appropriate solutions that would facilitate the Cabinet lineup.

The lunch outcome was negative as “no breakthrough was reached and corners could not be rounded,” reported VOL Radio.

Lebanese Forces’ MP Strida Geagea confirmed the party’s re-designation of Hariri to form the Cabinet on the basis of “the 2009 electoral results that proved the existence of a majority and a minority.”

She added that the Majority unanimously supports PM Hariri who “has been loyal to the Cedar Revolution’s principles.”
To Baabda, Zahleh’s MP Fattoush arrived surprisingly, “non-accompanied” by his Parliamentary Bloc. He re-mamed Hariri, accusing “those who did not accompany” him of “having received orders from their leaders to give up concerns for Zahleh’s issues”.

Few hours later and as it looked like a response to Fattoush’s earlier statement , “Zahleh in the Heart” bloc met Suleiman and confirmed Hariri’s nomination as PM-designate, stressing on its commitment to “Zahleh’s bloc unity and to the interests of the city.”

Almost at the end of the second round consultations , the Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblat met with President Suleiman and reiterated his Parliamentary bloc position to re-name Saad Hariri.

Finally, the outcome of the first day of Parliamentary consultations showed that 54 MPs out of 97 (instead of 98 MPs as caretaker PM Fouad Saniora is in Saudi for al-Umra) re-named Saad Hariri as PM-designate to form the Cabinet.

Speaker Nabih Berri said Monday that Hizbullah is a must not only to drive Israel out of Lebanon but also to make sure that it never returns.
“The Amal movement sees the resistance as a necessity not only for withdrawal but also to make sure that Israel never returns. The movement is surely against naturalization (of Palestinians),” he said on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of Imam Moussa Sadr’s disappearance.

“I still believe that the Saudi-Syrian equation is the key to Lebanon’s stability,” he said during the speech in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

However, he refused to make comments on cabinet formation, saying the upcoming government should reset its priorities and declare an economic emergency.

He requested the president to find feasible ways to tackle the economic and social crisis and called for increasing health insurances as well as implementing a new tax policy.

Berri believed that the planning ministry should be established to eliminate all funds.

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri said on Sunday he will no longer keep silent over the issue of unpaid compensation for the victims of the summer 2006 war with Israel. The month-long war in 2006 saw Israeli warplanes destroy villages in south Lebanon and entire blocks in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The 34-day summer war killed about 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and about 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers.

Speaking to a delegation from the southern village of Qana, Berri said he wouldn’t remain silent on attempts to deprive those whose properties were damaged during the 2006 war from compensation.

“The people of the south will not forgive or give up their legal rights to receive compensation,” the speaker stressed.
Berri vowed to his visitors that the development of south Lebanon would remain a priority for his Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc and all southern MPs.

The speaker added that choosing not to make statements on the issue of the cabinet formation does not mean keeping silent on the “difficulties” faced by the Lebanese.

“Choosing not to make statements on the issue of the government does not at all mean refraining from speaking about demands on living conditions on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan and before the new academic year starts,” Berri told his visitors from Qana. – The Daily Star