Lebanon’s politicians have overshot one deadline they had agreed with France and missing more may put at risk a French lifeline to haul the nation out of its worst crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war.
France has drawn up a timeline for Lebanon to tackle corruption and deliver reforms to help secure billions of dollars in foreign aid to save a country drowning in debt.
But the leaders have stumbled at the first hurdle by failing to deliver on a promise to French President Emmanuel Macron to form a new cabinet by mid-September.
Yet choosing a cabinet may prove the easy bit.
Once named, the ministers have a mountain of challenges, ranging from reviving a paralysed banking industry to fixing a power sector that cannot keep the lights on in a nation of about 6mn.
Macron, who visited Beirut after a devastating Beirut port blast in August, has told politicians they could face sanctions if graft gets in the way.
And Paris has repeatedly said there will be no aid without change.
At the heart of the cabinet logjam has been a demand by the Hezbollah and its ally Amal, to pick several ministers and to keep the finance post in their hands.
The finance ministry will have a vital role in drawing up plans to exit the economic crisis.
Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, a Sunni under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, had sought to shake up the leadership of ministries, some of which have been controlled by the same factions for years.
Hezbollah and Amal view moves to shift them out of key cabinet posts as a bid to weaken their sway.
They have a parliament majority with their Christian and other allies, although the cabinet dispute has put them at odds.
President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, has said no sect should claim any ministry.
France has said Lebanon faces collapse if it doesn’t change course.
The Lebanese president has said the country is going “to hell” if doesn’t name a cabinet.
Many Lebanese, thousands of whom took to the streets last year to demand change, have already been plunged into poverty as the economy has crashed.
Lebanon needs cash – and fast – after defaulting on its towering sovereign debt and with its banks on their knees.
The Beirut port blast, which killed almost 200 people, handed the nation with a new repair bill estimated at up to $4.6bn.
The central bank has been using up dwindling foreign reserves to subsidise vital imports of wheat, fuel and medicine.
Lifting subsidies, which the central has said cannot go on indefinitely, will bring more misery and may stoke tensions.
Minor episodes of sectarian unrest and factional skirmishes have accompanied the economic freefall.
Further deterioration threatens more flare-ups, while security forces are paid in a currency that is rapidly losing its value.
There are big challenges ahead.
France has drawn up a detailed roadmap for the new cabinet, ranging from swiftly restarting talks with the International Monetary Fund to launching tenders to start building new power stations.
Crucially, France has said the government must start to tackle endemic corruption quickly in order to secure funds at another donor conference that Paris has said it is ready to hold in the second half of October.
This means any new government faces a tight deadline.
It may prove a tall order for Lebanon’s politicians who have already failed to name a cabinet on time.
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