Hariri Proposal Under Fire From His Allies, Too

Okay, I realize they're smiling, but it still looks like awkward body language to me. Are these men really comfortable, or feeling a bit like they'd rather both be somewhere else? (That's Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on the left and Premier-designate Sa‘d Hariri on the right.)

Sa‘d Hariri's proposed Cabinet formula was, as pretty much everyone expected, rejected by Michel ‘Aoun and Hizbullah, but it's also raised some hackles among his March 14 allies. This Naharnet post says that Phalanges Party leader Amin Gemayel (a former President) rejects the idea because he wants his party to have an additional portfolio and rejects the appointment of Sami Gemayel as Tourism Minister unless he gets a more important post. Sami is Amin's son, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with his concerns.

Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces (which started life as the Phalanges Party militia but evolved into a Maronite party of its own) also rejects the mix of portfolios on offer.

Here's the Daily Star's overall account of the reactions. Pro-March 14 folks are starting to look to President Suleiman as some sort of potential agent for defusing the opposition pressures, but Suleiman got his job through a long and extremely tedious hammering out of compromises and if he were to suddenly take a strong position now it would be somewhat out of character, or at least track record.

All this sound and fury, by the way, is over a proposed Cabinet list that was not made public. It leaked, of course, instantly. A list published by the paper Al-Liwa' was published on the website Ya Libnan: (I haven't reformated its awkward layout):

Even though the proposed line -up was not made public Al Liwaa newspaper was able to obtain through its sources the following line-up:

1 - Sunnis : 6
Saad Hariri, Prime minister . Almustaqbal
Mohammad Safadi, minister of the economy.
Raya Haffar al-Hassan, minister of of Finance.
Ghaleb Mahmassani, Minister of State( share of the President of the Republic )
Minister of Justice ( name unknown) .
Minister of information ( name unknown) , but the name of Ammar Houry was mentioned as a possibility

2 - Shiites: 6
Yassin Jaber of minister of Foreign Affairs. Amal
Mohammed Jawad Khalifa minister of Health. Amal
Ali Abdullah, Minister of Agriculture. Amal
Mohammed Fneish Minister of industry. Hezbollah
Hussein Haj Hassan Youth and Sport. Hezbollah
Adnan al Sayyed Hussein, Minister of State of the share of the President.

3 - Druze: 3
Ghazi Aridi minister of communications. PSP
Wael Abu Faour minister of the displaced. PSP
Akram Shehayyeb , Minister of State. PSP

4 - Maronites: 6
Joe Sarkis minister of the environment. Lebanese Forces
Ziad Baroud of the Interior. share of the President.
Alain Aoun minister of public works. Change & Reform
Farid al-Khazen of minister of Education. Change & Reform
Vera Yammin minister of Administrative Development. Marada
Sami Gemayel minister of Social Affairs. Kataeb

5 - Orthodox: 4
Elias Murr, minister defense and deputy prime minister. share of the President.
Imad Wakim , minister of energy. Lebanese Forces
a person for from al Malouf family representing Zahle in our heart bloc .
And a fourth unknown person.

6 - Catholics: 3
Edgar Maalouf minister of public works. Change & Reform
Catholic woman as part of the share of the President.
Catholic Minister of Lebanon first loc .
7 - Armenian: 2
Hagop Bukradonian minister of labor ( Tashnaq party ) Change & Reform
Jean Ogassbian most likely as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs.

Only one of the designated ministers (at first glance anyway) has been published by me in The Middle East Journal, but how many other Cabinet lists can say that of even one? Minister of Education-designate Farid al-Khazen wrote "Political Parties in Postwar Lebanon: Parties in Search of Partisans," which appeared in the Autumn 2003 issue of MEJ. Soon after that he ran for Parliament and became an MP, but at the time he was a Professor at AUB. Congratulations, Farid, on the designation, though it appears this Cabinet list is a long way from being sworn into office.