Lebanon's president did not mean to revoke Hariri's mandate, son-in-law says

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun did not intend to revoke prime minister-designate Saad Hariri's mandate when he wrote to parliament last week declaring that Hariri could not form a government, Aoun's son-in-law said on Saturday.

Veteran Sunni Muslim politician Hariri was nominated in October to form a cabinet after Hassan Diab's government resigned in the wake of the Beirut port explosion which killed 200 people and damaged large swathes of the capital. But Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads for months over cabinet positions, blocking the formation of a government. Diab and his cabinet have stayed on in a caretaker capacity, but investors worry that without a new government in place, reforms cannot be enacted to end a financial crisis.