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| 13/06/2008 Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir expressed Friday hopes to overcome all difficulties and form the Cabinet as soon as possible, saying the repartition of ministers should be done fairly. Sfeir was speaking after a meeting with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Presidential Palace. The Patriarch made a remarkable statement enough to describe why it's taking this new government so much time to be formed. "In the past, the majority used to rule and the minority oppose but things seem to have changed recently".
MUSSA ON PRIVATE VISIT TO BEIRUT
In the meantime, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa arrived in Beirut on two missions – to attend the wedding of Speaker Nabih Berri's daughter and hold talks with Lebanese leaders on the latest developments.
OPPOSITION SLAMS SANIORA'S TWO BASKETS AS "TRAP"
Two weeks on his nomination to form the national unity government, Prime Minister-designate Fouad Saniora is still refusing to set a schedule for announcing his cabinet, talks about "progress" and expresses "confidence" that the cabinet would be formed "and the Lebanese people would be pleased with it."
"We are on the right track, but I would not commit myself to a deadline," Saniora said on Thursday after he paid a visit to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, saying that he agrees with Berri on the "achieved progress," refusing to elaborate.
However, the opposition has rejected two so-called baskets of a government line-up proposed by Saniora, according to the Lebanese daily An-Nahar. The daily quoted opposition sources as saying the baskets were designed as a "trap" to seek to stir up a dispute between Berri and the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc General Michel Aoun.
Saniora has "offered" the opposition two baskets of the new government line-up. The first consists of the ministries of finance, public works, education, tourism, environment, youth and sports, culture and displaced, while the second comprises the ministries of foreign affairs, energy, justice, economy, trade and commerce, agriculture, health and social affairs. The opposition sources cited the finance ministry post in the first basket and the foreign ministry in the second as reasons to believe Saniora's offer was a trap.
Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said that Berri informed Saniora of the opposition's refusal of the baskets, slamming them as "a useless trap." The daily added that Berri stressed that the solution key was held at Aoun's hands. Berri also accused Saniora of adopting procedures that do not produce governments, Asharqalawsat daily said on Friday. "It is not in this way that governments are formed," Berri was quoted by the daily as telling his visitors.
TIME RUNNING, OPPOSITION HINTS AT ESCALATING MEASURES
Meanwhile, time seems to be running out with no breakthrough achieved, what urged the opposition to hint at undertaking escalating measures next week if the new cabinet was not formed. Al-Akhbar daily, citing well-informed sources, said the opposition will not stay handcuffed in the event that the new cabinet line-up was not finalized by the beginning of next week.
The sources indicated that pressure would be exerted from both internal and foreign powers in an effort to speed up the formation of the new cabinet.
Sources close to Nabih Berri said the Parliament Speaker had informed Saniora that in the event of failure to set up a new government "all options would be considered."
Member of the Change and Reform Parliamentary bloc MP Nabil Nicolas confirmed the information, saying the country cannot stay without a government. "Our first step toward escalation would be calling on the commissioned PM to step down and let someone else form the government," Nicolas stressed during a TV interview on Wednesday. | 
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