By Adam Levy The Motley Fool

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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."

The article represent option of the author

By Stephen Zunes   - National Catholic Reporter - ncronline.org

There are more than a few ironies regarding the Oct. 31 election by the Lebanese parliament of former Gen. Michel Aoun, a Maronite Catholic who received his military training in the United States, as the country’s new president. One of the most striking is his shifting allegiances and the inconsistencies of U.S. policy toward Lebanon.

Aoun’s political party, known as the Free Patriotic Movement, is the most popular Christian-led political group in the country, surpassing the once-dominant far-right-wing Phalangists. Aoun’s party is aligned with the March 8 Alliance, one of the two main political blocs in the country, which includes leftists and Arab nationalists, as well as Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed radical Shiite group. As a result, both The Washington Post and The New York Times announced the election of the “Hezbollah ally” to the presidency and The Guardian referred to him as “a staunch ally of Iran.”

In 2007, former Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., when he was ranking member of the Middle East Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accused Aoun and his supporters of being “agents” and “boot-licking Lebanese proxies” of Syria and Iran, whom he referred to as the “puppet masters pulling on the strings.” He further accused “Aounists” of trying to “take through violence and intimidation what they cannot achieve at the ballot box.”

In reality, Aoun has become president last month through a constitutional process by a democratically elected parliament. This was not the case back in 1988 when he led a military regime, one of two rival governments. In October 1990, as the only major obstacle remaining to implementing the Taif Accords, which finally brought an end to that country’s bloody 15-year civil war, he was ousted by Lebanese and Syrian forces. The operation was openly supported by the United States, concerned with Aoun’s then-alliance with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the only foreign leader who provided Aoun’s regime with unconditional support.

JBEIL BYBLOS #khazen Mar Youhana – Jbeil