BEIRUT: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora began on Friday consultations with the various parliamentary blocs in a bid to form a new national unity government. Sources close to Speaker Nabih Berri told The Daily Star on Friday that a late afternoon meeting between Berri and parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri was "very positive." The sources added that Berri sees no obstacles facing the formation of the new government.Siniora kicked off the consultations by meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, deputy Speaker Farid Makkari, Independent MPs Michel Murr and Hussein al-Husseini.
After talks with Siniora, Makkari said that he told the prime minister that the new government must take Lebanon from political confrontation to political dialogue. Makari added that the cabinet must adopt the inaugural speech of President Michel Suleiman and start preparing for next year's parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah MP Mohammad Raad told reporters after meeting Siniora that the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc has forwarded its requests regarding the number of ministers and the portfolios it wants in the next government. Raad said the bloc has requested that the opposition get a Sunni minister and a Druze minister at the expense of Hizbullah's Shiite representation in the government. The Hizbullah bloc also discussed with Siniora the prospects of the next ministerial platform. "There were no differences between our vision and Siniora's vision on the issue of the resistance," Raad said.
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Meanwhile, Murr lashed out at the opponents of his son, Defense Minister Elias Murr, saying that "Elias Murr is our candidate for the government and this is the case for a big portion of the people of Metn." "I want to tell some lawmakers who are against appointing Elias Murr in the new government that they would not have made it to Parliament had it not been for the votes of the supporters of Elias Murr's father," he said, in an indirect criticism of members of MP Michel Aoun's Reform and Change bloc. "It is up to Siniora and to the president to appoint Elias Murr in the ministry that best suits him," Murr added.
Aoun told reporters after meeting Siniora on Friday that his bloc wanted five ministers in the next cabinet, adding that the posts would be distributed among different Christian sects.
Meanwhile, MP Hagop Parkradounian of the Armenian bloc, which is allied with Aoun, told reporters after talks with Siniora that it wants two ministers in the next government. Pakradounian said that former minister Alain Tabourian was one of the bloc's nominees for the next government.
Meanwhile, the different blocs representing the March 14 Forces maintained a low profile regarding their demands in the next government. Hariri only told reporters that the general atmosphere was positive, while Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said he preferred not to make any comment. MP George Adwan, representing the Lebanese Forces bloc, also declined to reveal the number of ministers requested by his bloc. However, the Tripoli bloc, headed by MP Mohammad Safadi, requested that Safadi remain in his post as public works and transportation minister.