By Xinhua,
Beirut : Lebanon’s newly-elected President Michel Suleiman said there are some obstacles that could delay the cabinet make-up, but the barriers can be surmounted through dialogue, local Naharnet news website reported on Thursday.
Suleiman also denied allegations that some foreign parties were pressuring him to nominate certain figures for the next cabinet, said the report.
“There is no party that can pressure Baabda (the Presidential Palace),” Suleiman was quoted as saying, adding “We are only ready to move under the pressure of national and Arab interests.”
Earlier, local As-Safir daily reported that Future Movement leader Saad Hariri announced that he was suspending his participation in talks aimed at forming a new cabinet to protest slack security in Beirut in the wake of repeated security breaches, said the report.
On Wednesday, the president met a delegation of Arab ambassadors, expressing his gratitude to the Arab states for helping Lebanon out of the most serious political crisis the country witnessed since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said the report.
“It is only natural for Arab states to support Lebanon given that the dangers faced by Lebanon are not any different than those faced by other Arabs,” said Suleiman, calling for “appropriate and good relations” between Arab states.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Fouad Seniora is consulting with various parliamentary factions on forming a new national unity government under an Arab-sponsored agreement.
Lebanese ruling parliamentary majority and the opposition led by Shiite militant group Hezbollah reached an agreement in Doha on May 21, ending a long political deadlock in the country.
The Doha agreement, which led to the election of Suleiman as president on May 25 after six months of presidential vacuum, called for a 30-member national unity government in which the opposition has its long-demanded veto power.
The rival leaders also agreed to adopt the 1960 electoral law under the Doha accord, which came after the political crisis in Lebanon turned violent early in May.