Lebanese President Joseph Aoun appointed Nawaf Salam Prime Minister of the crisis-hit country. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday picked international jurist Nawaf Salam to form a government to pull the war-scarred country out of economic crisis.

A majority of Lebanese lawmakers endorsed Mr. Salam, the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, after two years of a caretaker government.

“The president of the republic has called on Judge Nawaf Mr. Salam to task him with forming a government,” the presidency said.

Mr. Salam was abroad but would return to Lebanon on Tuesday, it said.

Mr. Aoun, whose election last week ended a two-year vacancy for the post, had held consultations with lawmakers earlier in the day ahead of announcing his selection.

As of Monday afternoon, 84 members of parliament had told Mr. Aoun they backed Mr. Salam, according to a tally by Lebanese media, with nine endorsing interim prime minister Najib Mikati to stay in the position.

Thirty-five refused to back either contender.

With the prime minister named by the president, the eastern Mediterranean country had been run by a caretaker government for more than two years amid a crushing economic crisis.

Mr. Aoun’s election last week was made possible in part by the weakening of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in a war with Israel last year.

Speaking to the press on Monday evening, Mr. Aoun said he hoped forming a government would be “smooth and as quick as possible”.

‘Purely Lebanese’ nomination’

Firas Hamdan, one of around a dozen independent lawmakers elected after mass protests against the ruling class in 2019, said Nawaf’s nomination was a “purely Lebanese political initiative” devoid of any foreign interference.

Mr. Salam “is a personality that resembles all Lebanese who refuse to see any more corruption or nepotism”, he told AFP.

The prime minister’s backers view the judge and former ambassador as an impartial figure able to carry out much-needed reforms.

Critics view Mikati as emblematic of the old crony politics system that also included Hezbollah and steered the country towards financial collapse.

The new prime minister will face major challenges, including implementing reforms to satisfy international donors to lift the country out of the worst financial collapse in its history.

He will also face the daunting task of reconstructing swathes of Lebanon destroyed in the Israel-Hezbollah war, as well as implementing the November 27 ceasefire agreement.

Under that deal, Hezbollah must pull its fighters from areas of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border as the national army — until last week under Aoun’s command — and UN peacekeepers deploy there.

Lawmaker Georges Adwan of the Lebanese Forces, a major Christian party, said after endorsing Mr. Salam that it was time for Hezbollah to focus on “political work”.

“The era of weapons is over,” he told reporters.

Hezbollah also lost a key ally in neighbouring Syria when Islamist-led forces toppled president Bashar al-Assad last month.

Independent lawmaker Melhem Khalaf earlier in the day said he backed Mr. Salam as a candidate of change.

‘U.S. coup’

A source close to Hezbollah had told AFP before the Monday consultations that the group and its ally the Amal movement supported Mikati.

The Monday front page of Al-Akhbar, a newspaper close to Hezbollah, said Mr. Salam’s nomination would be tantamount to a “complete US coup”, after Washington had backed Aoun for president.

In his inaugural speech on Thursday, Mr. Aoun said his election would usher in a “new phase” for the country.

Some opposition lawmakers on Saturday threw their weight behind anti-Hezbollah lawmaker and businessman Fouad Makhzoumi, but on Monday he withdrew to allow for consensus around Mr. Salam.

According to Lebanon’s constitution, the president designates the prime minister after talks with all political parties and independent lawmakers in parliament. By convention, he chooses the candidate with the most votes during these consultations.

Nominating a premier does not guarantee a new government will be formed imminently.

The process has previously taken weeks or even months due to deep political divisions and horse-trading.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, right, meets with Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, in Beirut, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday (November 15, 2024) asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah and appeared to urge it to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.

As a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei visited Lebanon for talks, Lebanese officials said an American proposal for a cease-fire deal had been passed on to Hezbollah, aiming to end 13 months of exchanges of fire between Israel and the group.

Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, ignited the war in Gaza – prompting exchanges between the two sides ever since.

Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,300 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80% of them in the past month — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

According to Lebanese media, U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson handed over a draft of a proposed cease-fire deal to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been leading the talks representing Hezbollah.

A Lebanese official confirmed that Beirut has received a copy of a draft proposal based on U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in the summer of 2006. A Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Mr. Berri. The politician, who knows the work of Hezbollah, and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.

U.N. resolution 1701, among other things, holds that only the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon, meaning Hezbollah would have to end its presence there. That provision was never implemented.

Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military overflights over Lebanon.

The Lebanese official did not give details other than to say Israel was insisting that some guarantees be included. The U.S. Embassy refused to either confirm or deny the reports.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Iran to help implement resolution 1701 in talks with Khamenei’s adviser, Ali Larijani. According to a statement on the talks issued by his office, the Lebanese government wants the war to end and the resolution to be implemented “in all its details. “

Mr. Mikati, who has become more critical of Iran’s role in Lebanon in recent weeks, also said the government wants Iran to help Lebanon’s national unity and not take a stance backing one party against another.

Iran’s backing for Hezbollah has helped the group, which is the most powerful faction among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims, dominate the country’s politics the last decade.

After meeting Mr. Mikati and Mr. Berri, Mr. Larijani said his visit’s main aim was “to loudly say that we will stand by Lebanon’s government and people.”

Asked if he was trying to thwart U.S. cease-fire mediation, Mr. Larijani said, “We are not trying to blow up any effort, but we want to solve the problem and we will stand by Lebanon, whatever the circumstances.”

Israeli forces carried out new strikes around the Lebanese capital on Friday (November 15, 2024). Three waves of air raids hit buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, setting off explosions in the area known as Dahiyeh.

In an earlier strike on the southeastern edge of Beirut, images taken by an Associated Press photographer captured a rocket about to strike an 11-story residential building in the Tayouneh neighbourhood – then showed a blast of flame erupting from the side of the building. Much of a lower level of the building was smashed to rubble.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in any of the strikes. In each case, the Israeli military had issued a warning before the attack, saying it was targeting Hezbollah facilities.

Near the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, rescue teams continued searching through the rubble Friday at the site of an Israeli strike the night before that hit a civil defense center in the town of Douris.

So far, the bodies of 14 employees and volunteers with the Lebanese Civil Defense had been recovered, the agency said, as well as some other remains that will require DNA testing.

Israel expanded its operations in Lebanon even as it continues its campaign in the Gaza Strip, vowing to destroy Hamas, which is also backed by Iran.

Funerals were held Friday (November 15, 2024) for 11 Palestinians killed Thursday (November 14, 2024) in a series of Israeli airstrikes in and around the central Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah. Two children were among the dead, seen with the other dead by an AP reporter.

On Thursday (November 14, 2024), the U.N. Security Council’s 10 elected members circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire” in Gaza. The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the U.N. Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members — Russia, China, Britain and France — are expected to support it or abstain.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives since then have killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say. The officials don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than half of those killed have been women and children.