Naharnet

Geagea Meets Khoury, Says LF Won’t Be Part of New Govt.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said on Saturday that his party will not participate in the new government but will take part in the consultations with President Michel Aoun to name a new PM in Baabda on Monday.

“The Lebanese Forces will not take part in the new government but we will participate in the binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier,” Geagea told reporters after a meeting with Ghattas Khoury, adviser to caretaker PM Saad Hariri.

On the form of the new government he said: “We support a government of independent specialists because replicating the same government formulas (a national unity government) have proven useless.”

“Lebanon needs an emergency government,” he added.

For his part, Khoury told reporters: “Parties are seeking a government inclusive of partisans and citizens from the protest movement,” assuring that Hariri is seeking all means to reach a solution.

“We are seeking a new stage in which political parties and citizens who took to the streets have a role in the government,” he added.

The meeting between the two men came after Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday announced that the FPM will not take part in any techno-political government, calling for a government led by a technocrat and comprising technocrat ministers.

Aoun is expected on Monday to begin the binding parliamentary consultations to name who will lead the new government after the resignation of Hariri on October 29, two weeks into the revolt.

Lebanon was swept by nationwide protests on October 17 against corruption and mismanagement demanding an overhaul of the political class.

Source: Naharnet


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