Form Government or Leave, Aoun Tells Hariri

President Michel Aoun called on PM-designate Saad Hariri on Wednesday to “make way” for someone else to form the new government if he is incapable of carrying out the mission.

“Your suffering has reached levels that no people can bear,” Aoun said in an address to the nation, addressing the Lebanese people.

“I had preferred silence to allow for solutions at all levels and to avoid any event resulting from sharp bickering and divisions,” the president added.

“Out of my oath, and after PM-designate Saad Hariri presented a draft cabinet line-up that does not meet the minimum requirements of national balance and respect for the National Pact, which plunged the country into the tunnel of paralysis, I invite him to the Baabda Palace, for the immediate formation of the government in agreement with me and according to the applicable constitutional mechanism and standards for the formation of governments, without excuses or delay,” Aoun went on to say.

He added: “Should he find himself incapable of forming and leading a national salvation government that would tackle the dangerous situations that the country and its people are going through, he should make way for anyone who is capable of forming a government.”

The president said Hariri should act out of his “constitutional responsibility and humanitarian and national conscience.”

“Such popular suffering will not be merciful towards those responsible for obstruction, elimination and the perpetuation of the caretaking phase,” Aoun added.

“This is a determined and honest call for the PM-designate to immediately choose one of the two available options,” the president said, warning that all posts would become useless should the country “collapse.”

Hariri was chosen to form a new Cabinet in late October but so far political bickering and disagreements between him and Aoun have delayed the formation.

Both Aoun and Hariri have accused each other of obstruction.

While the rivals of Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement have suggested that the president’s camp is seeking a share that would allow it to control the government’s decisions, Aoun and his camp have accused Hariri of infringing on the president’s jurisdiction in the cabinet formation process.