Lebanon gov’t formation slows again

Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who was assigned to form the new government, holds a press conference after meetingt with Lebanon’s president Michel Aoun in Beirut, Lebanon on 5 August 2021. [LEBANESE PRESIDENCY – Anadolu Agency]

The formation of the Lebanese government has slowed down again, a week after Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said it was still possible for a government to be formed in a matter of days.

Mikati was reported not to have attended his meeting with the President Michael Aoun yesterday to discuss the formation of a new cabinet.

Local media quoted official sources at the Baabda presidential palace as saying that there were some disagreements between Mikati and Aoun on the nominated names for the interior, justice, energy and economy ministers.

The source pointed out that the ministerial nominations were “changed by Mikati”, adding that Aoun had rejected the new ministers.

Mikati, a source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, would have to “extend the government formation deadline for a few days in order to mull the new nominations.”

READ: Lebanese queue for scarce petrol

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.