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| 23/06/2008 Another week starts and Lebanon's national-unity government has not seen light yet and is not expected to be formed in the near future in light of the loyalty bloc policy towards the ongoing consultations. The national opposition, in contrast, is calling since the start of the consultations to accelerate the cabinet formation, while making concession after concession to speed up the process; given that the stalled politics is negatively affecting the security situation. Opposition figures however argue that it is not their task to find solutions to form the government as it is Prime Minister-Designate Fouad Saniora's mission, who reiterates that he's not subject to any deadline.
"Very patient" Saniora, who heads a caretaker government, will give the Vienna donors conference to reconstruct the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp priority over the formation of the new national unity government. "The cabinet formation may take days or weeks, but we have to reach a solution at the end," Saniora said.
AOUN: SANIORA IS A WAR PROJECT
"Saniora represents a war project, not a catalyst for dialogue and understanding," the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, adding that he was right when he did not name Saniora for the premiership.
Aoun refused to portray the crisis as if it was with President Michel Suleiman. "Saniora is seeking to pit us against the president," he said, stressing that the crisis has to do with the commissioned PM "who is failing to form the government."
The General called on Suleiman to start new legislative consultations to name another PM instead of Saniora who, according to Aoun, proved to have failed. "The president can call for these consultations because Saniora, just like his followers, does not want a new government," he said.
Aoun pointed out he expects Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to call on the parliament to convene in order to adopt the division of the electoral districts as stipulated by the Doha agreement, signed in May 21 between Lebanese feuding parties. But the Lebanese MP said he expects the loyalty bloc to obstruct this session, adding that this step would "blow their cover."
Berri expressed disappointment over failure to form the new cabinet. "The cabinet should have been formed during the first week" of tasking Saniora with the mission, Berri told Lebanese daily As-Safir. "Unfortunately, it was not."
On the circulating security incidents, General Aoun recalled that he was the first to warn of the confrontations that broke out in Tripoli, accusing the loyalty bloc of sponsoring the explosion of the situation, and calling on the defense and interior ministers in the caretaker government to take action.
SANIORA: AOUN SEEKS COMPENSATION FOR LOSING PRESIDENCY
Aoun was speaking hours after Saniora launched a verbal assault on him during an interview with the Austrian daily Der Standard, accusing him of challenging President Michel Suleiman's quota in the new cabinet in an effort to "compensate for losing the presidency."
Saniora said Aoun wants his parliamentary bloc be given a ministry as a compensation for his loss for not being elected as president. "Aoun considers himself the exclusive representative of Christians in Lebanon, not the President or anyone else."
The "national-unity" PM-Designate included Hezbollah in his assaults, accusing the party of supporting Aoun just because the resistance party considers that "the General is giving it a national cover."
OPPOSITION AGAIN TAKES INITIATIVE, MAKES NEW PROPOSAL TO EXIT CRISIS
Meanwhile, the Lebanese national opposition is sensing the dangers of delaying the cabinet formation and is submitting solution proposals.
In this context, member of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Hasan Fadlallah suggested that Saniora gives Free Patriotic Movement senior official Issam Abou Jamra the position of deputy prime minister (a post customarily given to the Orthodox sect and to a senior minister), while the telecommunications seat goes to Aoun's parliamentary bloc.
Speaking in a TV interview, MP Fadlallah said that "if the loyalty is unwilling to give Aoun a basic portfolio and is telling him to choose one of the remaining 22 portfolios, why don't they give him the Telecommunications ministry which is not considered a basic one like the Interior, the Defense, the Foreign and Finance ministries?" "Although we have not spoken to General Aoun about this proposal, but it's another proposal to the loyalty to exist this crisis and we will wait for their response," the Hezbollah MP added. | 
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