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Lebanese President Aoun: «I Will Stay Committed» to Cabinet Formation

Lebanese President Aoun: «I Will Stay Committed» to Cabinet Formation
folder_openMiddle East... access_time3 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

Lebanese President Michel Aoun Wednesday affirmed that he would stay committed to his responsibility and the Cabinet formation process once a Prime Minister has been designated.

“I will stay committed to my process and hope that everyone thinks well about the designation and [government] formation,” Aoun said in a televised address. “I have said my word and I will not walk away,” Aoun stressed.

The president called on MPs to remember their responsibilities to the country and to the Lebanese people, ahead of the parliamentary consultations Thursday to designate a new prime minister.

Barring last-minute snags, and despite opposition by the two main Christian blocs, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is set to be designated to form a new government this week, a year after he resigned under the pressure of a nationwide popular uprising that erupted against the worsening economic conditions and the country’s entrenched political elite.

Thursday’s binding consultations come nearly a month after Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib stepped down in a move that has thrown the country into further uncertainty and cast gloom on the French initiative to save Lebanon.

For a lot of his speech, Aoun directed comments at officials and politicians, asking them “where is the electricity plan that has been kept in the drawers since 2010?” And “where is the rescue initiative to solve the economic crisis to salvage Lebanon from the repercussions of the Beirut Port blast?”

“Reform remained merely a slogan that officials and politicians repeat but they are completely opposite to it,” Aoun said. Aoun has been president for four years and founded the Free Patriotic Movement which has the biggest bloc in Parliament. The president has also admitted to having knowledge of the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate haphazardly stored in a warehouse which lead to the Aug. 4 Beirut Port explosion.

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