Hezbollah-Endorsed Professor to Lead New Lebanese Government
Hezbollah-Backed Frontrunner Still Shy of Support to Run Lebanon
(Bloomberg) -- A former education minister put forward by Hezbollah and its allies was named as Lebanon’s new prime minister Thursday, tasked with forming a government to lead the country out of one of its biggest crises in decades.
President Michel Aoun appointed Hassan Diab, 60, after he received the most votes in parliamentary consultations that lasted much of the day. It is unclear, however, whether the computing professor will be accepted by protesters who have been in the streets for two months demanding the removal of a political elite they blame for 30 years of corruption and economic mismanagement. Within minutes of his appointment, demonstrators, who have called for a technocratic government to clean up politics and rescue the economy, began to stream into the streets in Beirut, Tripoli and the southern city of Nabatieh calling on Diab to step down.
The country has been without a functioning government since late October, when former Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned in the face of the protests.
Diab’s formidable challenges are not limited to the streets, however. Lebanon is confronting one of its most serious financial and political crises since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, with the economy paralyzed, the currency sinking and foreign investors increasingly concerned the government will be forced to default on its debt next year.
Politicians have also been split on what the next government should look like. Iran-backed Hezbollah and its Christian allies in Aoun’s party have insisted that political parties be represented in the cabinet whereas protesters insist on independent experts.
Accepting the appointment in a speech at the presidential palace, Diab said everyone, including the protesters, would be represented in the new cabinet and consultations would begin Saturday.
“All our efforts must be geared toward preventing a collapse, restoring confidence and protecting national unity,” Diab said. “I will hold talks with former prime ministers and all parliamentary blocs as well as political forces, parties and the popular movement.”
“An independent”
A vice-president of the American University of Beirut and professor of computer engineering, Diab emerged as a possible candidate late Wednesday after Hariri once again said he didn’t want the job. Two previous candidates, including a former finance minister and a construction magnate, publicly withdrew their nominations after facing opposition in the streets or failing to secure political backing.
Under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, the position of prime minister goes to a Sunni Muslim, but Diab does not have much support in that community.
He secured the backing of Hezbollah and its allies, garnering 69 votes. The Future bloc of Hariri as well as most other Sunni parliamentarians refused to name a candidate; in total, 43 lawmakers refused to vote. Nawaf Salam, a former ambassador to the United Nations, received 14 votes. University professor Halimah Kaakour received one vote.
“After Hariri’s withdrawal and to avoid a vacuum, we named Hassan Diab,” MP Ibrahim Azar, a member of parliament speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc, told reporters after meeting the president. Berri, a Hezbollah ally, had repeatedly said he favored Hariri, a three-time prime minister aligned with Saudi Arabia.
As night fell, a small group of men gathered outside Diab’s home in Beirut protesting his appointment and saying he did not represent the Sunni community nor the protest demands.
Nationwide demonstrations began on Oct.17 after the government said it would impose fees and raise taxes to plug its budget deficit. Banks closed for more than a week and have since tightened restrictions on transfers and withdrawals to preserve dollars.
Lebanon’s central bank has been rationing dollars for months, causing the local currency to depreciate by a third on the black market and putting pressure on a currency peg in place since for more than two decades, amid fears that one of the world’s most indebted countries may be forced to restructure its bonds.
Hariri has asked European and Arab countries along with the U.S. for import credit to prevent food shortages in a country almost entirely reliant on imports. The measures by banks made it almost impossible for importers to get dollars as some credit lines were frozen.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams
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