SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 28 March 2024, Thursday |

“Mikati’s governmental basket” will remain vacant, sanctions equivalent to fire of hell

“The time limit for forming a government is not open, and whoever wants to understand should understand.” Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has ended his speech with this phrase after his meeting with President Michel Aoun. The 25 minutes meeting was enough to show the complications that still exist, and which indeed, has reproduced itself.

A source told Sawt Beirut International (SBI) that “Mikati’s governmental basket” will come out of Baabda without ministers, despite the time limit he gave himself, which have varied since his assignment. After he failed to agree on ministerial portfolios, he said this phrase without specifying a date for government formation.

The source added that Mikati doesn’t resemble himself to Prime Minister Hariri, because everyone has his personality and certain starting points in any approach taken. But it seems that the PM-designate is trying to change the constants of ministerial portfolios that President Michel Aoun will not abandon, and of course his team, because it is the last chance for them to reduce the losses that affected the performance of the Covenant. What had complicated the situation is the sanctions imposed on his son-in-law, former minister Gebran Bassil, which will prompt him to create various means to instill his presence in power.

The source said: “It seems that the framework announced by the European countries a few days ago regarding the sanctions that will be imposed on Lebanese officials obstructing the government formation wasn’t a deterrent to facilitate the government’s birth. Officials will pay the cost of this negligence when sanctions are imposed. The International conference in August 4 that they are counting on will not be for the corrupt and obstructive class that is still looking for personal gains from the portfolios to continue plundering the rest of the country’s capabilities and people’s savings.

Postponing the meeting between the PM-designate and President Aoun until after the commemoration  of the port explosion is just a losing bet, because the patience of the Lebanese people has run out. This is what the families of the victims expressed, vowing that after August 4th is not the same as before. Amnesty International report is the presumptive decision against the corrupt class, as it confirmed that “the Lebanese authorities have spent the past year brazenly obstructing the victims’ search for truth and justice,” stressing that the authorities are making “tireless efforts to protect those responsible from being investigated.”

The source added: “Unfortunately, every day an official comes out to blame others about the “nitrates”, and they were the ones responsible. Today, they are trying to bargain over certain portfolios through which they can tighten their control over the country’s joints electorally, judicially and financially.” But international accountability will be accompanied by the families of the port’s victims and the Lebanese people, after giving the authority 30 hours to lift the immunities of MPs and ministers required for investigation.

In conclusion, the source confirms that the government will not be formed and that the time limits have been burned. Whoever is designated, there is a single road map, a government that applies reforms far from quotas, otherwise their share of foreign and domestic sanctions will be equivalent to the fire of hell that the Lebanese people are experiencing.

    Source:
  • Sawt Beirut International