The now ex-prime minister designate Saad Hariri has indicated that he is stepping down and will not form his 4th government, 9 months after his appointment following mandatory parliamentary consultations and 11 months after the resignation of the Hassan Diab government. This withdrawal had been mentioned for several weeks.
It will now be for the President of the Republic to organize new mandatory consultations of parliamentarians to designate a successor to Hassan Diab whose government has been handling current affairs since August 10, 2020, 6 days after the explosion of the port of Beirut. .
Saad Hariri accuses the presidency of the republic of wanting major amendments to his proposals concerning the distribution of the various ministerial portfolios. He indicates that he has offered more time to the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, to study the composition of his government. However, he accuses the latter that “ there is no way we can agree on this “.
Saad Hariri would have concluded his press conference at the end of his meeting with the head of state by these words: “May God help this country”.
An insoluble crisis between the Presidency and the Maison du Center
The tension between the 2 men had increased in recent weeks, with bitter exchanges through intermediaries, the prime minister designate accusing the presidency of the republic of violating the constitution and the latter replying that Saad Hariri’s proposals violated the national pact.
These tensions came as Saad Hariri proposed forming a government granting a third to the Christian community, a third to the Sunni community and a third to the Shiite community, contradicting the National Pact stipulating an equal distribution between Christian and Muslim communities.
This resignation also comes despite pressure from the international community who asked Saad Hariri and the head of state for more flexibility, failing which sanctions targeting certain politicians accused of blocking the process of forming the government or of corruption. and human rights violations could be imposed by the European Union and the United States soon.
Saad Hariri was however supported by the president of the chamber of deputies, Nabih Berri, after he obtained the finance ministry for one of his candidates, a key ministry in the current situation when a forensic audit should take place accounts of the Banque du Liban but also government institutions in order to determine possible embezzlement.
As a reminder, Saad Hariri has already led 3 governments including 2 under the mandate of President Michel Aoun. He resigned on October 29, 2019 following major protests across the country due to the already deteriorating social and economic conditions.
Previously, sources close to the presidency of the republic had accused Saad Hariri of being uncompromising on the fact of appointing a Sunni personality to the ministry of the interior, or even a Greek Orthodox personality to the ministry of defense, these 2 ministries before to return respectively to the Christian community and more precisely to the Maronites with regard to the military institution.
These changes would not take into account the agreements previously concluded between the 2 men, note sources close to the Presidency of the Republic who believe that the 18 hours deadline for accepting or rejecting this list and imposed by the designated prime minister was dangerous and unacceptable.
It would be, according to these sources, for the Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri to transfer his responsibility for the failure to form a government for 11 months now on the back the presidency of the republic and not to face its failures and its responsibility in the current crisis while the social and economic situation of Lebanon continues to deteriorate, a failure which would be attributable according to the great majority of the population and the international community, to the Lebanese political class as a whole.
77% of the population would no longer have enough to eat and 33% of children living in Lebanon would sleep hungry, noted the authors of a UNICEF report.
Faced with this situation, the international community deems it necessary to put in place a new government and institutional, monetary and economic reforms before the release of its aid.
The ministries of justice and the interior are also hotly contested, with many legal cases involving high personalities close to certain politicians. Thus, the former Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, close to the President of the Chamber of Deputies or the former Minister of Public Works, Ghazi Zoaiter, all the same also of the Amal movement, are the subject of a request for waiver of immunity on the part of Investigating Judge Tarek Bitar who is investigating the explosion in the port of Beirut. Relatives of Saad Hariri, such as the former interior minister Nouhad Machnouk or the former director of the port of Beirut Hassan Koreytem are also the subject of the investigation.
In addition, the governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salamé, also close to Saad Hariri, is the subject of several investigations for embezzlement and money laundering abroad, in particular in France and Switzerland. These investigations have not yet been opened by the Lebanese justice, despite a request for information from the Swiss justice to the public prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat, also considered to be close to Saad Hariri.
