The Daily Star, BEIRUT: A new Cabinet cannot be formed unless Lebanon’s politicians find solutions to a number of contentious issues, a Future Movement official said Monday. “Matters are complicated concerning Cabinet formation,” former MP Mustafa Alloush told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5). These complications are the “tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Meanwhile, Change and Reform MP Hikmat Deeb said that “agreements have been made on fundamental issues,” during a morning talk show on LBCI. However, he added that some disputes over “minor details” remain unresolved.

Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that disagreements over the distribution of ministerial portfolios indicate that political rivals “favor their personal interests over that of the state.”

He said that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri had “made big compromises, including the election of [President] Michel Aoun, on condition that the Cabinet would be formed within a week of his election.” Derbas blamed Hariri and Aoun for the delay in Cabinet formation, but said that he believes that the PM-designate will “make further settlements to accelerate [an agreement] on his Cabinet lineup.”

Hariri’s attempts to form a new Cabinet have been impeded by overlapping demands from political rivals over the distribution of ministerial portfolios.

Caretaker Telecommunication Minister Boutros Harb was wary of these hurdles delaying the formation process. “I fear that the ongoing disputes over the distribution of portfolios transfers Lebanon from a republic without a president and run by a Cabinet into a republic that has a president and no Cabinet,” he said.

Lebanon had been without a head of state for more than two years, starting when former President Michel Suleiman’s tenutre ended in May 2014 and ending with the election of Aoun on Oct. 31