Lebanon's PM-designate consults with MPs on portfolios

By Charbel Abboud

BEIRUT

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri began consultations with lawmakers in Beirut on Friday to discuss the distribution of quotas and portfolios of the country’s upcoming government.

The consultations are expected to continue until Saturday.

After he was assigned to form the new government, Hariri vowed Thursday to form a national unity government.

Meanwhile, a source within the Lebanese President Michel Aoun-led Free Patriotic Movement said he was expecting an announcement of the formation of the new government headed by Saad Hariri during this month.

The source, who preferred speaking anonymously due to restrictions on talking to the media, said: "Each team [of Lebanese political parties] are thinking about what they want and what they will demand" from the next government’s quota.

“There are indications the process of forming the government may face normal obstacles, but there is no intention of any party to disrupt it," the source said.

On the probable distribution of portfolios of finance, interior, defense and foreign affairs, the source said that these portfolios are distributed equally between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon, without specifying the parties that will seize it.

For his part, Rashed Fayed, a politburo member of the Future Movement led by Hariri, said the president-designate will benefit from the Arab and international momentum that had emerged with the election of a new president.

Fayed pointed out "the government will be expanded in order to include all political forces on the Lebanese arena."