The current President of the International Court of Justice, Nawaf Salam, received the support of 84 Lebanese MPs for his selection as Prime Minister. The Presidency of the Republic issued a statement asking Salam, who is currently outside the country, to form the first government in the new era.
The first round of binding parliamentary consultations conducted by the President of the Lebanese Republic, Joseph Aoun, to name the president in charge of forming the government, ended with a tally of 12 votes for Salam, while caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati received 8 votes if the vote of Representative Jamil Al-Sayyid is counted, according to what was reported. National Media Agency.
Al-Sayyid said, “If the votes are equal between President Mikati and candidate Nawaf Salam, my vote will be for President Mikati,” while Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Elias Bou Saab announced that he had not named anyone to form the new government.
The second and final stage began at two in the afternoon. Within two hours of that, the number of supporters for Salam reached 68 deputies, and thus he practically became the prime minister-designate awaiting the official announcement that would be issued by the Presidency of the Republic. After that, she repeated the rosary in support of Salam.
Political sources told Reuters that Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, requested to postpone a meeting with President Aoun today, which indicates tension in the process. But the postponement did not happen, and representatives of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement came to the Republican Palace on the specified date and refrained from naming anyone to head the government.
The head of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc, Muhammad Raad, said that opponents of the Iran-backed group are working to dismantle it and remove it from power in Lebanon.
He added after party representatives left a meeting with the President of the Republic: “We took a positive step when electing the President of the Republic, and we were hoping to meet the hand that had always sung that it was extended, but it was cut off.” In the final tally, Salam received 84 votes, Mikati received 9, and 35 representatives were chosen. Not naming.
* Parliamentary Consultation Day
This morning, the Lebanese President began consultations with the parliamentary blocs, in preparation for naming a person who will be entrusted with the task of forming a new government, as the result of the consultations is mandatory.
After several candidates announced their willingness to take over the position that belongs to the Sunni community in Lebanon, the competition was mainly limited to two candidates: caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and veteran diplomat Nawaf Salam, who currently heads the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and is supported by the political forces opposing the “Party.” God,” according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
Mikati said, on the sidelines of the president’s election session on Thursday, that he was ready “if there is any necessity” to “serve the country.”
Mikati, whose government led the country through more than two years of vacancy in the presidency, during a period in which the economic collapse deepened and witnessed a devastating war between Hezbollah and Israel, has good relations with political forces and enjoys foreign relations with several parties.
After opposition forces including the Lebanese Forces bloc and other small blocs announced, on Saturday, their decision to nominate MP Fouad Makhzoumi to head the government, opposition and independent representatives announced their support for the nomination of Judge Nawaf Salam. He is a veteran jurist and diplomat who is respected in Lebanon, and his name is mentioned during every parliamentary consultation.
After meetings and contacts that continued until late Sunday night, Makhzoumi announced, on Monday morning, his withdrawal from running for prime minister, on the basis that “the presence of more than one opposition candidate will inevitably lead to the loss of everyone” and make room for “consensus” on peace.
He said, in a statement, that the country “needs a radical change in its approach to governance, and a government that keeps pace with the sovereign and reformist aspirations of the new era.”
Opposition MP Ibrahim Mneimneh also announced the withdrawal of his candidacy in favor of Salam.
Hezbollah’s opponents and those who oppose Mikati’s appointment believe that he forms part of the previous political system over which Hezbollah tightened its grip, and that adjusting the balance of political power at home in the wake of the setbacks that Hezbollah suffered in its recent confrontation with Israel, requires an approach… To name a new character.
The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, said last week: “A new era has begun… Whether we like it or not, President Mikati was with the last group.”
Challenges
According to the Lebanese Constitution, the President of the Republic appoints the Prime Minister-designate, in consultation with the Speaker of Parliament, after being informed of the results of the parliamentary consultations.
Assigning a new president to form a government does not mean that its birth is imminent. This task often took weeks or even months, due to political divisions and conditions and counterconditions in a country whose system is based on the principle of quotas.
In his swearing-in speech following his swearing-in, the Lebanese President announced the start of a “new phase for Lebanon,” outlining his plan of action in the coming period, in the wake of rapid regional changes and the decline of the influence of a major political group, Hezbollah, which was weakened by a devastating confrontation it waged with… Israel.
The next government awaits major challenges. The most prominent of which is the reconstruction after the recent war, which destroyed parts of the south and east of the country and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates Israel’s withdrawal from the areas it entered in the south, and includes adherence to UN Security Council Resolution “1701” issued in 2006; One of its terms is for Hezbollah to move away from the borders, disarm all armed groups in Lebanon, and limit it to legitimate forces alone.
Another challenge is implementing urgent reforms to accelerate the economy more than five years after an unprecedented collapse.
