Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati during a press conference at the Grand Serail. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati made clear his conditions for agreeing to form and lead Lebanon’s next government in an interview published Monday by the international Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. Mikati thus far is seen as the most likely contender for the role of premier-designate.
Here’s what we know:
• Mikati said his main conditions are for clear reforms to be set, along with a financial recovery plan that places the electricity sector on the path of rehabilitation. “If neither of these conditions are present, I will step aside and leave this position for another candidate,” the newspaper quotes him as saying.
• Mikati assured in the interview that he will not back away from this responsibility, and that he has national motives to “save the country” and not personal ones. He added that he will not be the head of a government that extends the crisis in a country that is on the verge of “total collapse.”
• Lastly, the caretaker prime minister called for the country’s leadership to unify instead of “engaging in useless arguments that hinder efforts to complete what we must do to get our country out of the unprecedented crisis.”
• Parliamentary bloc consultations to appoint a prime minister-designate are expected later this week.
• Mikati was tasked with forming a government last summer after former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s monthslong efforts to do so repeatedly met with failure. Mikati’s “Together for the Rescue” cabinet was formed on Sept. 10 and governed until it assumed caretaker status in the aftermath of parliamentary elections on May 15.