Lebanese PM-designate Mikati aims to form gov’t to implement reform plan

SMA NEWS – BEIRUT

Lebanese businessman Najib Mikati secured enough votes in parliamentary consultations on Monday to be designated the next prime minister, and now faces the difficult challenge of forming a viable government to tackle a financial crisis.
Mikati has been prime minister twice before and, unlike many Lebanese leaders, does not represent a political bloc or hail from a dynasty. He received 72 votes out of a total of 118 members of parliament.
Like previous nominee Saad Al-Hariri, he must navigate the sectarian, power-sharing structure and secure agreement on a cabinet equipped to address the financial meltdown in Lebanon, one of the world’s most heavily indebted states.
“I don’t have a magic wand and I can’t work miracles,” Mikati said after his nomination, but added that he had been studying the situation and had “the necessary international guarantees”. Mikati is the third person to be nominated since Hassan Diab’s government resigned after an explosion at Beirut’s port area on Aug. 4 last year that killed more than 200 people and flattened large areas of the city.
Diab’s government has stayed on in a caretaker capacity since then, but Lebanon’s currency has collapsed, jobs have vanished and banks have frozen accounts in the country’s worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
Mikati said he was confident he could form a government, and its first priority would be to implement a reform plan by former colonial power France.