France endorses ex Lebanese PM's proposal to end cabinet deadlock

France Foreign Ministry has declared its support to the proposal by former Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri.

The proposal could help with the formation of the country’s new cabinet amid the worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

In a statement released on Wednesday September 23, 2020, the Ministry said, “This declaration represents an opening and all parties should understand its importance so that a government of mission can now be established.”

On September 22, 2020, Hariri – a leading Sunni politician, offered a way out of the political deadlock by proposing an “independent” Shia candidate to be named as finance minister.

Hariri stressed that the move would not however mean that the position “should always be held by a Shia leader”.

This comes as the larger Shia blocs, Hezbollah and Amal, have insisted they hold the Finance Ministry in any new government.

Paris has been pressing politicians for the quick formation of a government that “will draw up reforms to tackle corruption and help attract international aid to fix an economy drowning in debts.”

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon’s sectarian system of power-sharing, had sought to shake up ministerial positions with a new cabinet of specialists.