Lebanon President Joseph Aoun starts consultations for PM selection
Al Jazeera
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and top ICJ judge Nawaf Salam seen as frontrunners.
Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun has begun binding consultations with members of parliament to nominate a prime minister.
Aoun’s consultations got under way at 8:15am (06:15 GMT) on Monday with a meeting with Elias Abu Saab, the deputy parliament speaker, according to the official National News Agency.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who is backed by the Hezbollah-led alliance, and Nawaf Salam, a favourite of anti-Hezbollah legislators who is the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, are seen as the frontrunners.
The consultations follow Aoun’s election last week amid foreign pressure to form a government desperately needed to tackle major challenges in the country.
Lebanon had been without a president since October 2022, run by a caretaker government amid a crushing economic crisis compounded by all-out war between Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel.
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