Nawaf Salam named PM with sweeping 84 votes as Hezbollah decries 'exclusion'

Prominent Lebanese diplomat and judge Nawaf Salam was named PM-designate on Monday after he won sweeping support from legislators, as Hezbollah accused some parties of "staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion."

The Presidency, which issued a decree naming Salam as PM-designate, said the latter received 84 votes as caretaker PM Najib Mikati received only nine votes and 35 MPs refrained from naming anyone.

Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice and his nomination was made by Western-backed groups as well as independents in the Lebanese parliament. Salam is backed by Saudi Arabia and western countries.

Monday’s nomination of Salam during binding consultations with President Joseph Aoun is a major blow to Hezbollah, which is also a powerful political party, after its militant wing was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel.

Salam will have a difficult mission ahead of him, as Lebanon truce with Israel that ended the nearly Israel-Hezbollah war. Salam will also have to work on getting the small nation out of its historic five-year economic meltdown.

Salam's nomination and last week’s selection of the country's army commander Aoun as president is likely to lead to flow of funds from Western and oil-rich Arab nations to Lebanon to help in the reconstruction process.

Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc meanwhile voiced regret over the manner in which Salam was nominated.

“Our meeting with the president was to express our regret over those who want to harm the presidential tenure’s consensual start,” the head of the bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said after the bloc’s meeting with Aoun.

According to media reports, the bloc asked for the postponement of its meeting with Aoun until Tuesday before eventually reversing its decision.

“Once again some are staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion, in a deliberate and spiteful manner,” Raad decried.

“We made a positive step upon the election of the president and we were hoping to meet the hand that had always boasted about being extended, but it suddenly was severed,” the MP added.

“It is our right to demand a government to respect the National Pact, and any government that contradicts with coexistence has no legitimacy. We will monitor and carry on with all due calm and wisdom and we will watch their actions for removing the occupier from our land, returning the captives, reconstruction and the correct implementation of 1701 in a manner that preserves national unity,” Raad went on to say.

Speaker Nabih Berri's Development and Liberation bloc also refrained from naming anyone for the PM post.

"We hope for a new start for Lebanon's salvation from the multiple crises, topped by the continued Israeli aggression," the bloc's MP Ayyoub Hymayyed said after the bloc's meeting with Aoun.

"The bloc did not make a nomination based on the principle that there should not be a contradiction between the (1943) National Pact and real coexistence," Hmayyed added.

Salam's backers view the judge and former ambassador as an impartial figure able to carry out much-needed reforms, a contrast to Mikati regarded by critics as under Hezbollah's influence.

Lawmaker George Adwan of the Lebanese Forces said after meeting Aoun and endorsing Salam that it was time for Hezbollah to focus on "political work."

"The era of weapons is over," Adwan told reporters.

Hezbollah ended a deadly war against Israel this fall bruised and weakened. Under a ceasefire deal, the group 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 U.N. peacekeepers deploy there.

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

Independent lawmaker Melhem Khalaf said he backed Salam as a candidate of "change," coming from outside of Lebanon's traditional ruling class.

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

The Monday front page of Al-Akhbar, a newspaper close to Hezbollah, said Salam's nomination would be tantamount to a "complete U.S. coup", after Washington had backed Aoun for president.

In his inaugural speech on Thursday, Aoun said his election as president would usher in a "new phase" for the country.

Lebanese university professor Ali Mrad said support for Salam's nomination reflected "the real changes that Lebanon is experiencing."

"Today there are two options in the country: a serious reform option, called Nawaf Salam, and an option that takes up back, called Najib Mikati," he said.

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

Whoever heads Lebanon's new government will face major challenges, including implementing reforms to satisfy international donors amid the country's worst economic crisis in its history.

They will also face the daunting task of reconstructing swathes of the country after the Israel-Hezbollah war and implementing the November 27 ceasefire agreement.

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.