BEIRUT: Lebanon could have a new government as early as Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest, after major obstacles over the distribution of key ministerial portfolios have been eliminated, sources close to the Cabinet formation process said Tuesday.

“A new government could be announced either Wednesday or Thursday as efforts have been intensified to sort out the few remaining points and minor details over the distribution of key portfolios,” a source close to the Cabinet formation process told The Daily Star.

“The Baabda Palace is waiting for Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to present his latest Cabinet lineup to President Michel Aoun before a formal announcement is made,” the source said.

Speaker Nabih Berri also sounded optimistic about the Cabinet formation, but questioned the reasons for the delay. “Since 3 p.m. Monday, I can confirm that there is no longer anything to justify a delay in issuing the Cabinet lineup decree because each side has taken more than his share of sovereign, public service or normal portfolios,” Berri was quoted as saying by visitors at his Ain al-Tineh residence.

He was referring to a major breakthrough in the six-week-long Cabinet standoff that emerged Monday after MP Sleiman Frangieh declared following talks with Berri that the speaker had agreed to concede the Public Works Ministry to Frangieh’s Marada Movement. Berri said he gave the Public Works portfolio to Frangieh as a means of facilitating the Cabinet formation.

The Marada Movement’s representation had posed a major hurdle toward the Cabinet formation after it had insisted on being allocated one of three key ministerial portfolios – Telecommunications, Public Works or Energy – as a condition for joining the government.

Asked if new obstacles popped up delaying the Cabinet formation, Berri said: “So far, I personally don’t know what is the reason hindering the Cabinet formation. In fact, I don’t know where the hurdles are now. There should be no hurdles.”

He added that no final decision has been made yet on whether the new government should include 24 or 30 members.

“During my last meeting with President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, we had agreed to speed up the Cabinet [formation] and that it should be a national unity government with 30 members and be announced before Independence Day [Nov. 22],” Berri said. “So far, I don’t know if there was a retreat from the 30-member Cabinet.”

The speaker emphasized that a national unity government must represent all the parties “because the exclusion of anyone will empty it from the meaning of national unity.”

However, the source close to the Cabinet formation process dismissed media reports that Hariri had now opted to form a 30-member national accord government instead of a 24-member body. “Efforts now are focused on a 24-member Cabinet because both President Aoun and Prime Minister Hariri reject a 30-member Cabinet,” the source said.

“Final touches are being put to the Cabinet lineup as efforts and contacts are now geared toward solving the substitute portfolio [for the Amal Movement] after Berri agreed to concede the Public Works Ministry to the Marada Movement.”

The source said that in addition to retaining the Finance Ministry, Berri’s bloc will also be allocated the Labor and Agriculture ministries, with one of these two portfolios eventually being assigned to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

Similarly, Hariri will seek to placate the Lebanese Forces, which had initially insisted on taking control of the Public Works Ministry as a condition for its participation in the government, with another key portfolio, the source said.“The Lebanese Forces will now get the Health Ministry, in addition to the Information Ministry and the post of the deputy prime minister,” the source said. He added that a statement made by LF’s Melhem Riachi that “we will be positive” in dealing with the Cabinet formation efforts signaled that the party was ready to accept the Health Ministry instead of the Public Works portfolio.

Another source close to the Cabinet formation process said Frangieh’s escalatory tone against Aoun following his meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai Monday had apparently put a damper on the government’s birth.

“Instead of speeding up the Cabinet formation after all major hurdles have been cleared, efforts are now concentrated on defusing tension between Aoun and Frangieh,” the source told The Daily Star.

Rai was reported to be mediating to achieve a reconciliation between Aoun and Frangieh, the two rival Maronite leaders who fiercely contested the presidency. When Frangieh was meeting with Rai in Bkirki, north of Beirut, the patriarch called Aoun to ask him to talk with the Marada Movement chief, but he refused.

Aoun’s snub drew a quick fiery response from Frangieh who said he was ready for “a battle, conciliation or new relationship” with the president. “If he wants to fight us, we will fight him. If he wants our friendship, we will be friendly,” Frangieh said.

Meanwhile, Aoun and other officials sounded hopeful that the Cabinet formation process was in its final stage. “Contacts are ongoing to form the new Cabinet and they have made progress,” Aoun told visitors at Baabda Palace. He said that reform efforts that contribute to the rise of Lebanon “would accommodate everyone except those who don’t want to participate.”

MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the FPM said that positive breakthroughs have been made in the Cabinet formation, in a reference to resolving the problem of the Marada Movement’s representation. However, he stressed that the final Cabinet lineup needs to be approved by Aoun and Hariri.

“There is a party that wanted to give up the Public Works portfolio. ... But in order for the matter to become constitutional, it needs the approval of the president and the prime minister-designate,” Kanaan told reporters following the weekly meeting of Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc in Rabieh, north of Beirut, chaired by FPM leader and caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

“Cabinet consultations are ongoing and we need to build on the positive breakthroughs that have so far been made,” he added.

Caretaker Culture Minister Raymond Areiji from the Marada Movement said: “Now, we can say that we are on the road to a solution in the Cabinet formation process.”