Lebanon President names billionaire businessman Najib Mikati as new Prime Minister

Lebanon on Monday appointed Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, a billionaire businessman, as the prime minister. The newly appointed leader appealed for unity in the country to begin recovery from the ravaging impacts of the novel coronavirus and the economic and financial meltdown that has battered the country. Mikati was also tasked with forming a new government to deal with the immediate issues and ending a year-long political impasse. 

According to the local press, the former had been a two-time premier. He was last in power in the year 2014. On Monday, he told reporters that he would strive to form a new government but the situation is too dire to overcome alone. Mikati was designated to the position by Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, after Saad Hariri earlier this month stepped down following political disagreements failing to form a cabinet despite the months-long attempts. 

“Alone, I don’t have a magic wand and cannot achieve miracles,” Mikati said shortly after his election, according to AP. “We are in a very difficult situation, it is a difficult mission that can only succeed if we all work together,” he stressed. 

It is yet unclear whether Mikati would be able to break the year-long political impasse and actually form a new cabinet, which, sources told AP, had a monumental task to bring about the critically needed reforms within the country. Mikati is one of the richest men in Lebanon who is not only backed by Lebanon’s major political parties but also by Iran’s militant group Hezbollah, as well as the Shiite party, Amal, led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Former Sunni prime ministers including Hariri had all previously endorsed Mikati. The former, however,  faces the Christian opposition, including from Aoun’s own support base that heads the largest Christian bloc in Lebanon’s parliament. Although, he got a clear majority of 72 votes from Lebanese lawmakers. 

Lebanon's PM-designate resigned over 'differences' 

Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri resigned after he failed to form a government amid Lebanon’s accelerating economic and political crisis. Abandoning his 9 months-long effort after accepting the challenge to form a new cabinet, the veteran Sunni politician cited the difference of opinion with President Aoun as his reason for stepping down, snubbing any further hopes at compromise due to political gridlock. Lebanon has been enduring a severe economic depression over the past 8 years’ spillovers from the Syrian civil war that has halted the country’s cross-border trade, sinking its economy to the world’s third-highest ratio of debt to GDP since the 1800s, a World Bank Lebanon Economic Monitor (LEM) report stated.

This was worsened by the recent COVID-19 pandemic with the most severe financial crises episodes since the mid-nineteenth century. The agency blamed the continuous policy inaction and the absence of a fully functioning executive authority within the middle eastern country that threatened the dire socio-economic conditions for the citizens. 

Hariri was nominated for the post of caretaker PM in October 2020 amid the nationwide protests from hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who had forced the then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab to step down in the aftermath of the deadly August 4 port of Beirut explosion. Although, a very slim majority of Lebanon’s members of the parliament had vouched for his return as a PM-designate to form a cabinet. At a state presser, the outgoing PM-designate declared that “it is clear” that he would not be able to agree with “his excellency the president," as he announced resignation.