Terrorist group Hezbollah said on Thursday that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri needs to deal with a diplomatic fight regarding Sunni representation that has blocked the formation of a new government, six months after elections.
The world’s third-largest public debt as a proportion of the economy, Lebanon is in urgent need of a government capable of installing economic reforms that are necessary to put its debt on a sustainable road, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A deal appeared imminent last week when the Christian Lebanese Forces Party surrendered to Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement, settling a battle over Christian representation that had been alleged as the primary obstacle.
However, the Iranian proxy Hezbollah has pushed for one of its allied Sunni members of the government to be handed a cabinet portfolio, reflecting the group’s gains in the election. Hariri, Lebanon’s leading Sunni, has pushed back.
One post that Hezbollah is set to control is the health ministry.
“We believe that the key to the solution is in the hands of the prime minister-designate,” said Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem in a broadcast by Al-Manar TV. “He is the one who can accomplish the government tomorrow, and he is the one who can postpone the government to another time.”
