Damascus: There are two initiatives currently on the table to move the Lebanese cabinet formation talks forward. One is the brainchild of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and second is an expansion on an initiative proposed last September by French President Emanuel Macron.
So what is the problem?
It’s been six months now since Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was asked to form a government, and yet, he has repeatedly failed to come up with something acceptable to President Michel Aoun and his ambitious son-in-law Gibran Basil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).
Hariri and Aoun agree on nothing. Their last meeting on March 22 ended in failure, with each side blaming the other for lack of progress.