Najib Mikati To Be Appointed Lebanon’s Premier-Designate

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has received enough votes in parliamentary consultations on Monday to be nominated as the country’s new prime minister. The Tripoli parliamentarian and Harvard-educated billionaire businessman on Sunday received the support of Sunni political leaders, including former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, as well as the Shiite Iran-backed Hizbullah party, and Speaker Nabih Berri’s Shiite Amal Movement. The Druze-majority Progressive Socialist Party is also backing Mikati. President Michel Aoun is expected to make Mikati’s appointment official later on Monday, tasking him to form a new government. Lebanon has been without a fully empowered government for almost a year since caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned following the Beirut Port explosion last August. Lebanon continues to struggle from a crippling financial crisis that has left half its population in poverty and devalued the Lebanese pound by more than 90%. In October 2020, Hariri was appointed prime minister-designate but failed to form a government. He resigned 10 days ago after nine months of political deadlock. Mikati previously served twice as Lebanon’s prime minister: first in a caretaker government for three months in 2005, and then from April 2011 until February 2014.