BEIRUT: Lebanon’s leader Saad Hariri on Thursday stepped down as the country’s prime minister-designate and accused the Hezbollah-led opposition of blocking weeks of efforts to unlock a political stalemate.
Hezbollah and its allies rejected a unity government proposed by Hariri this week, more than 10 weeks after he was designated prime minister.
Hariri said he had held “rounds and rounds of consultations that always ended in obstruction.”
“I have informed the president that I have abandoned efforts to form a government,” he told journalists in Beirut.
“I worked for 73 days to achieve this objective but each time the rounds of negotiations were hampered one way or the other,” added Hariri, saying the team he had proposed was “frittered away through conditions imposed” by the minority.
President Michel Suleiman is obliged to nominate the candidate with the greatest support among lawmakers. Hariri, leader of the majority coalition in Parliament, is expected to be picked once again.
Hariri and his allies won a healthy majority of 71 seats in the 128-member Parliament in the June election, while the Hezbollah camp clinched 57.
“I hope this decision will be in the interest of Lebanon and will lead to a relaunch of dialogue,” he said.
The announcement comes after more than two months of fruitless efforts. The rejection of Hariri’s proposed team sparked fears of a new political crisis in a country where bickering led to deadly fighting only last year.
On Monday, Hariri proposed a 30-seat coalition Cabinet to President Suleiman but Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah quickly accused him of proposing a line-up that would only complicate the situation.
“I do not believe this way of doing things will bring Lebanon out of the crisis over the formation of the new government,” Nasrallah said. “It will complicate the problem.” Hezbollah accused Hariri of trying to impose a “de facto government” contrary to the spirit of a national unity Cabinet.
Hariri, the son of assassinated former Premier Rafik Hariri and head of the Western-backed parliamentary majority, was named premier on June 27.
Tough negotiations led to a deal on the number of ministers each political camp would have in the Cabinet, with 15 going to Hariri’s alliance, 10 to its opponents and the president appointing the remaining five.
However, the various factions have been unable to agree on who gets what ministries. Without naming anybody, Hariri said on Thursday “it seemed to me that certain people have no intention of moving forward...” Details of the proposed Cabinet were never made available to the general public.
However, a ruling alliance source told AFP earlier this week that the proposal failed to meet the demands of Michel Aoun, Hezbollah’s key Christian ally. Free Patriotic Movement leader Aoun — who holds 27 of the Hezbollah-led group’s 57 seats — had made a number of demands the Hariri faction was unwilling to accept. One was for Aoun’s son-in-law, Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil, to get a post in the next Cabinet.
The current government, led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, stays on in a caretaker capacity until a new Cabinet is formed.
