>Lebanon-politics.

--Aoun Shatters Hopes in Angry News Conference

--OTV Says Negotiations Will Continue

--Message from Feltman to Hariri on Gov't Revealed

--March 14 General Secretariat Calls for More Security

Hopes in Lebanon for a government being formed soon were shattered on Wednesday by Christian opposition leader MP Michel Aoun. "We are all back to square one," declared the front-banner in the leftist daily AS SAFIR on Thursday. Opposition by Aoun "froze in place the optimistic wave" surrounding a possible formation of the government, the Beirut daily AN NAHAR said. The pan-Arab daily AL HAYAT, for its part, announced on Thursday, "Aoun escalates his opposition campaign."

At a news conference after a meeting of Aoun's "Change and Reform" parliamentary bloc on Wednesday, Aoun said his Free Patriotic Movement was "still committed to all its demands." Aoun launched an indirect attack on the ruling majority in Lebanon, saying, "What happens in Lebanon doesn't happen anywhere else in the world. We aren't satisfied with the way the finance ministry has been run since [Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri's] Future Movement took power. We aren't satisfied with the way the judiciary has been run. We aren't satisfied with the way the interior ministry has been run. Security authorities are all politicized in this country, as people are investigated and come out free because of their political support. We want to introduce all these reforms into these ministries and they are quite simply not letting us. Moreover, they want to take away the only ministry in which we actually did introduce reforms, the telecoms ministry."

Aoun continued, "They offered to give us other ministries in exchange for the telecoms ministries and they gave us state portfolios instead. This way, all the important government portfolios remained with them while we were given secondary portfolios--this is unacceptable. Nobody has the right to even dare say that a certain political party cannot be in a certain ministry. Ministries should be accessible to all parties. The president [Michel Suleiman] has the interior ministry and we can't even get close to it; another ministry is under the control of another political party. Nothing's left for us, while we have a 27-man parliamentary bloc, which is the second biggest in the Lebanese parliament."

Telecoms

Aoun also insisted on maintaining his hold on the telecoms ministry through his son-in-law Gibran Bassil. "If a person failed in the parliamentary elections it is not a big deal if that person was the victim of vicious propaganda campaigns waged against him. The biggest problem, however, is when a minister fails.

"All of the people in power right now are notorious for being unable to run the state." He was referring to outgoing Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who was subjected to heavy criticism by Aoun in the past for "not knowing how to manage state affairs." Aoun added, "And so these people who can't run a state are still in power and a person who introduced key reforms in the telecoms ministry is being rejected. This cannot go on. We either introduce key reforms now or we never will. The state right now is like a public zoo, basically."

Aoun thus stated, "All our demands for participation in the government still stand. Our parliamentary bloc has increased by six from the 2008 parliament, and our demands for participation in the government have increased too." The opposition leader has demanded five government portfolios, including the telecoms ministry, to participate in the government. These demands, however, are seen by the majority as "illogical."

OTV 

Meanwhile, the Free Patriotic Movement's mouthpiece television network OTV reported Wednesday evening that "talks between Hariri and Aoun will continue," citing "sources close to Michel Aoun." According to OTV, rumors spread on Wednesday saying that Aoun had "stepped back" from his claims and struck an agreement with Hariri to form a government. "Aoun's news conference was to quell this organized media campaign, giving the Lebanese people false hopes over Today's News Highlights the possible formation of the government," the OTV news broadcast said.

Message

Meanwhile, Druze leader Walid Jumblat's mouthpiece AL ANBAA was reported to have published on Wednesday a message from US Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman to Hariri. In the message, Feltman expressed his concern over the adoption of a 15-10-5 power-sharing equation for the Lebanese government, saying it does not reflect the results of the parliamentary elections. Hariri's ruling March 14 coalition won the June 7 parliamentary elections with a 13-seat edge over the Hizbullah-led minority. The equation gives 15 ministries to the majority, 10 to the opposition, and five to the president.

The report in the paper on Wednesday said that Hariri responded to Feltman's message, and said that the 15-10-5 equation was "the only way to move forward."

March 14

The March 14 General Secretariat on Wednesday demanded that "the state live up to its security duties," according to a statement published Thursday. The statement said "We discussed some general issues regarding the formation of the Lebanese government, and agreed that its formation would lead to a more stable Lebanon. Every day that goes by without a government means more loss to the Lebanese people in terms of security and stability."