Salam to hold govt. formation consultations Wednesday and Thursday
Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam’s non-binding parliamentary consultations for forming a new government will be held in parliament on Wednesday and Thursday , Parliament’s Secretariat-General said.
Salam will meet with the parliamentary blocs on Wednesday from 10:00 am until around 6:00 pm and will meet with the independent MPs on Thursday from 10:00 am until around 6:45 pm, the Secretariat-General said in a statement.
Salam said Tuesday that he will not marginalize any side in Lebanon, an apparent reference to Hezbollah, which in past years opposed his appointment as prime minister and this year indicated its preference for another candidate.
Salam, who is currently the head of the International Court of Justice, said that he will work on spreading the state’s authority on all parts of the country. On Monday he won the support of a majority of legislators, after which President Joseph Aoun formally asked him to form a new government.
Over the past years, Hezbollah and its allies have blocked Salam from becoming prime minister, casting him as a U.S.-backed candidate.
“The time has come to say, enough. Now is the time to start a new chapter,” Salam said adding that people in Lebanon have suffered badly because of “the latest brutal Israeli aggression on Lebanon and because of the worst economic crisis and financial policies that made the Lebanese poor.”
“Both my hands are extended to all of you so that we all move forward in the mission of salvation, reforms and reconstruction,” Salam said.
Neither Salam nor Aoun, an army commander who was elected president last week, is considered part of the political class the ruled the country after the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
Source: Naharnet
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