BEIRUT:
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun summoned Nawaf Salam, the head of the International Court of Justice, to designate him prime minister after most lawmakers nominated him on Monday, a big blow to Hezbollah, which accused opponents of seeking to exclude it.
The choice of Salam underlined the major shift in the power balance among Lebanon’s sectarian factions since the Iran-backed group was pummelled in a war with Israel last year, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
The presidency said Salam, currently outside the country and due to return on Tuesday, had secured the backing of 84 out of parliament’s 128 lawmakers, and Aoun had summoned him to assign him to form the government.
Salam won backing from Christian and Druze factions, and prominent Sunni Muslim MPs, including Hezbollah allies. But lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shia ally the Amal Movement, which hold all the seats reserved for Shias in parliament, did not name anybody, indicating they currently do not intend to participate in Salam’s government.
Senior Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad, whose Iran-backed group had wanted incumbent Najib Mikati to stay in the post, said Hezbollah’s opponents were working for fragmentation and exclusion. He said the group had “extended its hand” by electing Joseph Aoun as president last week only to find the “hand cut”.
Last week’s election of army commander General Aoun, who enjoys the support of the United States and Saudi Arabia, was another sign of shifts in the political landscape, in which Hezbollah had long held decisive sway.
The prime minister must be a Sunni according to Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system which parcels out state positions on the basis of religious affiliation. The presidency goes to a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament must be a Shia.
