Lebanon: Aoun blames Hariri for failure to form new government

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has blamed Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri for the latter’s failure to form a new government, Rai Al Youm online newspaper reported yesterday.

“[Hariri] was asleep and then woke up with new rules that ignore all previous rules we used to follow when we form governments,” Aoun said in a press conference.

He replied to Hariri who blamed him for the failure to form a new government, accusing him of demanding veto power over the government. This scheme, Hariri argued, allows Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil to control the agenda of the government.

On 22 March, Hariri presented Aoun with a draft list of ministers for a new government, but Hariri left a meeting with Aoun saying he was still demanding veto power over the government.

Hariri also said Aoun had sent him a framework structure for the cabinet so that he could fill out the names of ministers and their political backers.

READ: Lebanon’s political stalemate may lead to civil war

This way, sources inside the meeting told the media Hariri got very angry with Aoun.

According to Rai Al Youm, Aoun said that Hariri knows that he was “concerned” about the formation of the government, “but this does not give him the right to impose a cabinet appropriate to him, not to the country.”

He also denied that he sought veto power over the government, saying Hariri’s claims in this regard were “false”.