Hariri's Cabinet Plan

Yesterday Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Sa‘d Hariri finally proposed a Cabinet formula to President Michel Suleiman: 15-10-5, a 30 member Cabinet with 15 from the March 14 Movement, 10 from the Opposition, and five designated by President Suleiman, giving him the decisive weight. The proposals reject the demands of Michel ‘Aoun, and are drawing protests from Hizbullah.

Since Hariri waited this long to in effect reject the oppositions demands but propose his own version of a national unity Cabinet, there are a lot of questions about motivations. I'm pretty busy today, but fortunately the move has spurred the blogger Qifa Nabki (Elias Muhanna) to break his silence since resuming his studies at Harvard, and post his own impressions. (Sorry, I had the wrong link there for a while, but it's fixed.) I'm going to let his comments serve for now, and perhaps throw in some thoughts of my own later or tomorrow.