Lebanese President Joseph Aoun begins consultations to select prime minister. government news
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and top ICJ judge Nawaf Salam are seen as the frontrunners.
Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun has begun binding consultations with members of parliament to nominate a prime minister.
Aoun’s consultations began at 8:15 a.m. (06:15 GMT) on Monday with a meeting with deputy parliament speaker Elias Abu Saab, according to the official national news agency.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led coalition, and Nawaf Salam, a favorite of anti-Hezbollah legislators who is the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, are seen as the frontrunners. ,
The discussions took place after Aon’s election last week amid foreign pressure to form a much-needed government to tackle major challenges in the country.
Lebanon had been without a president since October 2022, being run by a caretaker government amid an economic crisis complicated by the all-out war between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel.
The results of the parliamentary consultation are expected by the end of the day. Once the Prime Minister is selected, it is his or her job to form a new government, a process that can take months.
“President-elect Aoun said he expected the next prime minister to be a partner, not a rival,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Lebanese capital Beirut, said. “A person who has the support of the international community, and a person who is willing to make much-needed reforms.”
big challenges
Lebanon has a unique power-sharing system, designed to balance power between the country’s different communities.
The President, who must be a Maronite Christian, serves as head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister must be a Sunni Muslim and must have significantly greater executive powers than the President.
The Speaker of Parliament, who leads parliamentary debate as well as plays the role of political arbiter, must be a Shia Muslim.
One of the country’s richest men, Mikati has led the country in a caretaker capacity during a presidential vacuum.
Mikati said on the sidelines of Thursday’s presidential vote that he was ready to serve Lebanon “if needed.”
However, Hezbollah’s opponents see Mikati as part of an outdated political system over which the group has a stranglehold.
Whoever leads Lebanon’s new government will face huge challenges, including implementing reforms to satisfy international donors amid the worst economic crisis in the country’s history.
He also faces the difficult task of rebuilding large parts of the country after the Israel-Hezbollah war and implementing a November 27 ceasefire agreement, which also includes the thorny issue of disarming Lebanese armed groups.
