The leader of the Hezbollah parliamentary group, Mohammad Raad. (Credit: Photo sent to our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah)
BEIRUT — There is "no time to lose" when it comes to forming a new government Hezbollah's parliamentary group's head said on Sunday, three days after Najib Mikati was designated as prime minister following binding parliamentary consultations held by President Michel Aoun.
Here's what we know:
• Mikati as premier-designate is charged with organizing parliamentary consultations with all MPs, in order to select cabinet members and form a government. However, any cabinet he succeeds in forming will be short-lived as it will automatically be considered resigned when Aoun's term in office expires in October.
• "We have no time to lose," warned the leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary group, MP Mohammad Raad, at a partisan event in Harouf, South Lebanon. "If some don't want to appoint a prime minister, and some don't want to participate in the government, and some want to be in opposition to waste time and not assume their responsibilities, then who will lead the country," he asked.
• Both Hezbollah's Christian rival the Lebanese Forces and its ally the Free Patriotic Movement refrained from putting forward any name for prime minister-designate during the binding consultations held at Baabda on Thursday. Meanwhile, the majority of the 13 opposition group MPs named Nawaf Salam, a former Lebanese ambassador to the UN.
• “We can form a cabinet that will prove to be even more productive, but if we want to waste time, it will be unfortunate,” he warned. "We must all hasten the formation of a possible government in these circumstances so that it assumes the management of the country," Raad said, calling for "cooperation between all."
• Hezbollah Central Council member Nabil Kaouk also made a similar appeal again Sunday, asking to "hasten the formation of the government."