Amal won't be part of Adib govt: Nabi Berri

BEIRUT — Lebanon's parliamentary speaker said his group opposed the way the prime minister-designate was forming a new Cabinet and that it would not join on those terms, but that he would still cooperate to stabilize the nation in crisis, his office said.

The office of Nabih Berri, head of the Amal Movement which is allied to the powerful Hezbollah group, listed in a statement criticisms of the way the Cabinet was being formed by Mustapha Adib, including a lack of consultations.

“The problem is not with the French, the problem is internal,” Berri's office said in its statement, after an ally said Berri had held a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron who is pressing for Lebanese reforms.

Meanwhile, the European Union's commissioner for crisis management has called for the urgent formation of a "credible" government in Lebanon before a second phase of financial support for the crisis-hit country can be released.

Janez Lenarcic said the EU had mobilised 64 million euros ($79 million) for the emergency response to a devastating port blast that killed more than 190 people and wounded thousands in Beirut on Aug. 4.

The next round of funding would be for reconstruction, he said, but warned it would have to go hand in hand with reforms because the international community was not willing to support practices "that led to financial collapse and economic crisis". — Agencies