On Wednesday night, President Michel Aoun unexpectedly postponed the binding parliamentary consultations for choosing a new prime minister. According to an MP, the aim of the postponement is to block Saad Hariri from being designated.
When President Aoun announced the postponement of the consultations until October 22nd, which were initially due on Thursday, October 15th, he justified it in a presidency statement.
“The postponement came at the request of some parliamentary blocs after difficulties emerged that needed to be resolved,” the statement read.
As per Future Movement MP Assem Araji, “President Aoun postponed the binding parliamentary consultations at the request of Gebran Bassil, who had declared that he will not nominate Hariri for the premiership.”
“By doing this, Bassil has not only delayed the formation of a new government but also thrown the country, already reeling from a severe economic crisis and an alarming surge in coronavirus infections, into further uncertainty and paralysis,” he told The Daily Star.
Hariri, who appears to have built up strong momentum in his new run for the premiership, has yet to comment on the development. However, a source of LBCI shared that he has no intention whatsoever to back out.
On that note, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri’s sources said after the president’s announcement that he was against any postponement of the consultations, “even for one day.”
Coincidentally, Hariri’s reemergence in the premiership scene comes close to the date of his resignation last year, under the pressure of the uprising that erupted in October 2019, after which he expressed, several times, a lack of interest in returning to the position.
That is no longer his stance.
