This comes as Lebanon’s political and religious leaders are sharply split between those calling for a neutral government made up of specialists, and others calling for the formation of a national unity Cabinet embracing all the country’s main political parties to rebuild disaster-stricken Beirut, enact structural reforms and tackle the crippling economic and financial crisis, the worst since the end of the 1975-90 Civil War.

“America and Arab Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, do not want to see Hezbollah’s participation in any government. Any government that includes Hezbollah’s representatives will not be able to attract financial aid which Lebanon badly needs to overcome its deepening economic crisis,” a senior Future Movement source told The Daily Star.

The US and several Arab Gulf states have branded Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization. They have also condemned the Iranian-backed Shiite party’s involvement in the 9-year-old war in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad’s forces and its interference in other regional conflicts.

However, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, who visited Beirut last week after the Aug. 4 catastrophic explosion that tore through Beirut Port, killing more than 180 people, injuring 7,000 and displacing about 300,000 people, compounding an already crippling economic crisis, did not appear to flatly reject Hezbollah’s participation in a new government.

“Hezbollah may or may not be part of a government. They have been in past governments. We have been able to deal with governments in the past with a Hezbollah component, but the question is whether it is going to be a government that’s truly capable of reforms,” Hale said in a conference call in Washington Wednesday. Hale laid out a long list of needed policy changes, including carrying out fiscal and economic reforms, ending endemic corruption, improving transparency, addressing an inadequate electrical system and carrying out an audit of the Central Bank.

Asked to comment on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s flurry of activity and contacts with various political leaders aimed at rallying support for former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s return to the premiership, the source said: “Hariri refuses to duplicate the previous national unity governments which had proved their failure in dealing with the economic crisis and carry out the required reforms.”

National coalition governments, formed by Hariri and former premiers Fouad Siniora and Tammam Salam, had been riven by internal differences and were thus unable to resolve any of the country’s chronic economic, social, health, electricity and environmental problems.

On whether Hariri had preconditions to be the next prime minister, the Future source said: “Hariri wants the formation of a neutral government made up of specialists that will be able to deal with the international community and Arab Gulf states.”

Hariri had said he would not accept to form a new government with the participation of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Gebran Bassil, who has been accused by his political opponents of corruption and responsibility for the waste in billions of dollars in the ailing electricity sector. Bassil and ministers affiliated with the FPM have held the Energy Ministry for more than 10 years. To this day, Lebanon is still suffering from long power cuts and blackouts in some areas.

Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah said his group would not object to Hariri’s return to the premiership, but he insisted that the party, which enjoys wide popular support within the Shiite community, be represented in the next government.

“We have no objection or a problem with Prime Minister Hariri’s return to the premiership.” Fadlallah said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen channel Wednesday night. He recalled that Hezbollah had urged Hariri not to resign last October under the pressure of a nationwide popular uprising against the worsening economic conditions and the country’s entrenched political elite blamed by protesters for corruption, mismanagement and the squandering of public funds.

He said Hariri is a leading candidate to head the next government, adding that contacts are ongoing between Hezbollah and the head of the Future Movement.

Asked if Hezbollah would accept to be excluded from a new government, Fadlallah said: “Can anyone in Lebanon sidestep Hezbollah in the formation of any government?”

He reiterated Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s demand for the formation of a national unity government or a government with the broadest representation protected politically. “Among the tasks of the new government is to rebuild Beirut, deal with the suffocating financial crisis and carry out essential reforms,” Fadlallah said.

Berri met Wednesday with President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace to discuss the ongoing contacts to form a new government. Berri asked Aoun, whose ties with Hariri have been strained, to support Hariri as the next prime minister.

Aoun is yet to set a date for binding parliamentary consultations on designating a new premier after Prime Minister Hassan Diab submitted the resignation of his government on Aug. 10 under the brunt of mounting public outrage over the Beirut explosion.

“Aoun’s position on designating a new prime minister has not changed. He wants various blocs to agree beforehand on a new prime minister before setting on a date for binding parliamentary consultations on appointing a new prime minister,” an official source told The Daily Star.

Under the Constitution, Aoun is required to designate a candidate for prime minister with the most support from parliamentary blocs.

A senior Shiite preacher called Thursday for the formation of a national unity government, disputing the grand Sunni mufti’s demand for a neutral Cabinet.

“We call immediately for the formation of a national unity government with national priorities without waiting for signals or statements from [foreign] embassies or consuls, or else the nation will be lost,” Grand Jaafarite Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said in a speech marking the Islamic New Year.

Qabalan, who has rejected Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai’s demand for declaring Lebanon a neutral state, called for “a complementary system” to the 1989 Taif Accord that ended the Civil War and stipulated equal power sharing between Muslims and Christians.

Qabalan’s remarks came a day after Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Latif Derian, the highest Sunni religious authority, called for the formation of a neutral government made up of specialists to deal with the aftermath of the Beirut blast and early parliamentary elections.

Christian political and religious leaders are also pushing for the formation of a neutral government and holding early parliamentary elections. But Berri, Hezbollah and its Christian ally, the FPM, have come out against holding early parliamentary elections and called instead for the formation of a national unity government.

Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov spoke with Hariri by telephone Thursday, discussing Lebanese-Russian relations, especially the worsening economic and social situation in Lebanon following the Beirut explosion, a statement from Hariri’s media office said.

Hariri highly appreciated the Russian relief aid sent to Lebanon after the blast, while Bogdanov restated Russia’s firm positions in supporting Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and internal stability, the statement said.