After months of deadlock in the formation of the Lebanese government, Prime Minister-Designate Najib Mikati yesterday presented to President Michel Sleiman the first draft of the Cabinet lineup. The proposed draft might undergo minor changes pending the approval of pro-Hezbollah Christian leader Michel Aoun. According to this proposal, the cabinet will include politicians and technocrats, and will be finalized when the disagreements among the Hezbollah-backed March 8 coalition leaders are resolved.

Under the proposed cabinet line-up, the government will include 26 portfolios, eight of which will be allotted to Christian leader Michel Aoun's Change and Reform Parliamentary bloc. But Aoun has not yet approved the cabinet make-up. He recently accused Lebanese President Michel Suleiman of obstructing the government formation and threatened that he would withdraw his support for Mikati in case his demands are not met. His candidate, he announced, would be Sunni business tycoon Mohamad Safadi. Aoun is at odds with Suleiman over control of the Ministry of Interior; to this date, it is unclear whether the dispute has been resolved.

However, other members of the March 8 coalition were more optimistic, saying that the new government would most likely be announced by the end of this week. The conventional protocol of newly-assigned ministers under Syrian tutelage was to visit Damascus for political blessing. The visits are back, led by Mikati's brother Taha who presented the proposed government lineup to senior officials, according to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Christian leader Suleiman Frangieh also visited Damascus this week, even as protests were spreading in the country.

The renewed Syrian interference in Lebanese politics did not go unnoticed by the March 14 coalition. One member of the Future Parliamentary bloc led by outgoing PM Saad Hariri said that the cabinet has already been formed but is still awaiting approval from Syria. After being ousted from the government by Hezbollah and its allies, the March 14 coalition is going on the defensive, making its focal demand the continued cooperation of the new government with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is trying the assassins of former PM Rafik Hariri. The STL is expected to accuse members of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime of perpetrating the attack, and as such it has been the object of a relentless smear campaign by the Shiite group.

With the new regional developments, time is running out for the PM-designate. The kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists in Eastern Lebanon sent a sharp warning to the Lebanese authorities of the repercussions of political void on security. What's more, European officials reportedly warned their Lebanese counterparts of an imminent war with Israel that may aim to take the eyes off of local protests in Syria. Lebanese leaders have to weigh the costs and benefits of ministry portfolios versus security escalations that may develop into all-out wars.