The powerful Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah believes a solution to be "very close" for the country's impasse over forming a new government, one of its senior officials said on Wednesday, following nearly eight months of political wrangling.
Amid an economic crisis, top leaders have been unsure as to how to form a government eight months after the general elections. Rival parties have competed over the allocation of cabinet positions, further unsettling the country's economy.
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri are now determined to form a government. Hezbollah, a heavily armed, Iran-backed movement set up in the 1980s to combat Israeli occupation, started taking part in electoral politics in the 1990s and is the most powerful group in the country. Hariri and Aoun have tried getting to a breakthrough to create a national unity government in line with Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system last month, but it did not work out and the impasse resumed.
However, Hariri said on Sunday he still believed the government would form early in the new year. "We believe the solution is very close," said Mahmoud Qamati, deputy head of the group's political council. "The intentions held by everybody are positive and for the benefit of the country," he added.
Heavily indebted and with a stagnant economy, Lebanon desperately needs a new government to implement economic reforms to put its public finances on a more sustainable footing and unlock foreign aid. Lebanon has the world's third-highest level of debt to GDP and according to the Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, it faces an economic crisis that he warned could turn into a financial one. Hariri has pledged to carry out economic reforms that could unlock billions of dollars of international investment in Lebanese power, transport and data infrastructure, aimed at boosting the economy after years of weak growth.
The International Monetary Fund has stressed the importance of Lebanon putting its debt on a sustainable footing, while bond yields and the cost of insuring against Lebanese sovereign debt have shown signs of stress in recent months. Hariri called for political factions to cooperate on reviving the political process. The final hitch in efforts to form a government is about Sunni Muslim representation in the cabinet and Hariri said that he and Aoun were working to solve it.
Last week, the Lebanese took to the streets to demonstrate against the many problems crippling the country from moving forward— protests were focused on the economic crisis, which has led to falling living standards. Civil society groups organised protests in Tripoli and Nabatieh and Beirut.
Last month, Israel uncovered several tunnels it said Hezbollah had dug under the border, adding to tensions between the countries some 12 years after Israel and Hezbollah fought a war on Lebanese soil. Qamati said the government formation was beneficial "particularly in light of the Israeli dangers".