Lebanese President Michel Aoun began today, the binding parliamentary consultations to assign a president to form the new government, while the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, asked the Lebanese to accelerate the formation of a new government.
The National News Agency reported that Hariri arrived at the Baabda Palace, the seat of the Lebanese presidency, and began consultations with Aoun, after disputes over the course of weeks delayed the agreement on a new government that could work to pull the country out of its financial crisis.
Labeling and Consulting
The Future blocs, the Socialist Party, the Marada Movement, the Amal Movement and a number of centrist blocs and independent deputies announced their intention to name the former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is expected to be assigned to form the government at the end of consultations through decrees issued by the Lebanese presidency, this afternoon.
Yesterday, President Aoun called on parliamentarians to assume their responsibilities in naming a new head of government and to monitor the work of any government that might be formed.
For his part, former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced the nomination of Saad Hariri to head the next government, and expressed his hope that the next government will be effective and able to carry out the required reforms.
This comes while the Al-Jazeera correspondent said that the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc says it does not name any candidate to head the Lebanese government.
Any new government will have to deal with a financial collapse that gets worse, and with the outbreak of the new Corona virus and the repercussions of the massive explosion, which witnessed the port of Beirut in August, which killed about 200 people.
Demand and Crisis
Last August, France sought to push Lebanese politicians to address the unprecedented crisis.
But they have not yet been able to take the first step, which is to agree to quickly form a new government.
In this context, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian asked the Lebanese to accelerate the formation of a new government, saying that the longer the formation of the government was delayed, the more the boat sank, as he put it.
Hariri appeared as a candidate to form a new government that could revive the efforts of France, which has laid down a roadmap to implement reforms that would open the door to the return of foreign aid, which Lebanon badly needs.
Parliamentary consultations were supposed to take place last week.
But it was postponed amid political differences, and Aoun must choose the candidate with the most support among members of the House of Representatives, in which Hezbollah and its allies are a majority.
It is expected that Hariri will get a sufficient number of votes, today, Thursday, unless obstacles appear in the last minute, to take up that position for the fourth time in a country mired in debt, and his coalition government resigned late last year amid mass protests against the ruling elite.