Lebanon’s new Hezbollah-backed prime minister was preparing for talks on forming a government as calm returned to the streets yesterday after protests over his appointment.
Lebanese prime minister-designate Najib Mikati, a moderate billionaire businessman, was to make protocol visits to five of his predecessors before launching talks today with parliamentary groups.
Security was tight and several schools remained closed, but traffic returned to normal following a “day of rage” by supporters of outgoing Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri.
Anti-riot troops patrolled the streets of Beirut and the port city of Tripoli, a Sunni bastion and Mikati’s hometown, where protests the day before had turned violent. There were no casualties.
Banners reading “Mikati, appointed by Khamenei,” Iran’s supreme leader, remained hoisted in Tripoli as tanks were deployed outside Mikati’s home and offices. Residents of Tripoli said they planned to set up a tent in a city square to protest his appointment.
Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim.
Mikati is a Sunni, but supporters of Hariri, backed by Saudi Arabia and the US, view his appointment as a bid by the Shiite militant Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, to gain more political clout.
The 55-year-old tycoon was tasked with forming a new government after Hezbollah and its allies toppled Hariri’s Cabinet because of a long-running dispute over a UN court probing the 2005 murder of his father, former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. The Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is reportedly readying to indict Hezbollah members in connection with the Hariri murder.
Mikati said he planned to address that thorny issue through dialogue.
“Stopping the tribunal today is no longer a Lebanese decision,” he said.
He added, however, that Lebanon’s cooperation with the tribunal was another question altogether, without elaborating.
Mikati also rejected accusation that he was “Hezbollah’s man,” saying he was not bound by the party’s agenda.
“I say in all honesty that my nomination by Hezbollah does not mean I am bound by any of their political positions, except as concerns the protection of the national resistance,” he said in an interview at his Beirut home after his appointment to form a new government.
He was referring to Hezbollah’s struggle against Israel.
“Don’t prejudge me or my behavior, please, especially the international community,” he said.
Lebanese newspapers were divided over his appointment yesterday, with some mourning a “Hezbollah government” and others hailing it as a welcome change.
“Hezbollah’s government set to see the light soon,” said the front-page headline in the Arabic language daily Al-Mustaqbal, owned by Saad Hariri.
“Now that the ‘day of rage’ has ended, it has become clear that all that smoke from the burning tires could not mask the truth, which is that Lebanon has entered a new political phase,” read the editorial in As-Safir, which is considered close to Hezbollah.
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