Lebanon: Najib Mikati, a man of the system appointed Prime Minister
Najib Mikati is appointed Prime Minister for the third.
Here at a press conference in Beirut, July 26, 2021. AP - Bilal Hussein
Text by: Paul Khalifeh Follow
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Najib Mikati was appointed on Monday by 72 Lebanese deputies to form the next government.
The businessman is committed to carrying out reforms demanded by the international community to help Lebanon out of its crisis.
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From our correspondent in Beirut,
Prime Minister for the third time, Najib Mikati, 65, is considered one of the most prominent Sunni politicians and one of the most illustrious representatives of the mainstream political class, disparaged by the protest movement that has erupted in Lebanon in October 2019. This businessman, at the head of one of the largest fortunes in the country with 2.7 billion dollars according to
Forbes
magazine
, is a member of Parliament for Tripoli, a city with the largest number of billionaires while being the poorest in Lebanon.
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See also: Lebanon: Najib Mikati appointed to form a new government
Najib Mikati made his fortune in telecommunications by creating in 1982 with his brother the Investcom group which will impose itself on the market thanks to a network of relationships forged with Syrian officials, at the time when Damascus played a leading role in Lebanese internal politics. In the 90s, he will also become close to Bashar al-Assad, who will succeed his father in June 2000.
This sponsorship by the supervisory power will help him to climb the ranks in Lebanon, where he was appointed Minister of Public Works in 1998. After this baptism, he resolutely launches into politics, leaving his brother Taha to expand. the family financial empire, which diversifies its investments in Benin, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Syria and Yemen.
In Lebanon, his group takes shares in the country's largest bank, Audi, and becomes, among other things, owner of the post after its privatization.
Prime Minister at pivotal times
A man of compromise, clever at smoothing out angles, Najib Mikati succeeded in making people forget his friendship with Bashar al-Assad to become a key figure on the Lebanese political scene.
He held the post of Prime Minister at pivotal moments in the history of Lebanon.
For the first time, in 2005, he succeeded pro-Syrian Omar Karamé, forced to resign after the assassination in February of Rafiq Hariri.
He will lead a government whose mission will be to organize legislative elections that will bring the anti-Syrian coalition of March 14 to power.
He and all the members of his cabinet had pledged not to be candidates.
After this election, Lebanon entered a period of instability, marked by a series of political assassinations never claimed, but attributed to Syria or its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.
After the Israeli offensive of July-August 2006, which will kill 1,000 civilians on the Lebanese side and 150 deaths, mostly soldiers, in the Israeli ranks, the inter-Lebanese divisions will widen further.
This period of instability will reach a peak with the coup de force of Hezbollah, which militarily crushes its adversaries in a few hours after a decision of the government of Fouad Siniora, in May 2008, to dismantle its telecommunications network, a measure considered by the party. pro-Iranian like a
casus belli
.
This episode imposes a new balance of power in Lebanon, more favorable to Hezbollah and its allies.
Najib Mikati is again called upon to occupy the post of Prime Minister after the fall of Saad Hariri's government in January 2011, against a backdrop of differences over the creation of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), responsible for trying the assassins of Rafiq Hariri, suspected members of Hezbollah.
The prime minister will resign two years later, leaving Lebanon even more divided around the war in Syria.
His critics will accuse him of having turned Lebanon into a base for the Syrian rebels, including their most radical Islamic components, and of having encouraged the entry of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, who represented, to a time, a quarter of the inhabitants of the country.
Strengths and weaknesses
Today, Najib Mikati returns to power as Lebanon is hit by
one of the most serious crises in the world
since 1850. The Prime Minister designate has several advantages.
He thus revealed, in a statement after his appointment, that he would not have accepted his "
difficult mission
" if he had not received international guarantees.
Another strong point, Najib Mikati benefited from the support of the main Sunni and Shiite Muslim parliamentary blocs, including Hezbollah, which had refrained from supporting the candidacy of his predecessor, Saad Hariri.
"
We want to give additional impetus to facilitate the formation of a government,
" the leader of the pro-Iranian party group in the House, Mohammad Raad, explained.
Najib Mikati is however handicapped by weak points. First, Christian political coverage is lacking.
The two main forces of this community, the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL, founded by President Michel Aoun) and the Lebanese Forces of Samir Geagea, did not nominate him.
Then, his name is mentioned in several dubious cases concerning embezzlement and abuse of power.
It is in this context that Najib Mikati will try to form a government, where
Saad Hariri failed
for nearly ten months.
He will have as main interlocutor Michel Aoun, intractable in the choice of Christian ministers and in the case of the forensic audit of the Bank of Lebanon.
The mission promises to be perilous.
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