Bassil Lauds Hariri's 'Positive Step', Urges Him to Pick 'Credible' Candidate

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Wednesday lauded caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s decision to withdraw his nomination for the PM post, urging him to suggest a “credible and capable” candidate.

“We appreciate the responsible stance that Mr. Prime Minister Saad Hariri took by announcing that he is no longer nominated to head the next government and that he will go to the binding parliamentary consultations tomorrow,” Bassil said in a written statement.

“We see in this stance a positive step, which we hope he will complete by suggesting -- in light of his position vis-à-vis the National Pact – a credible and capable figure on whom there can be consensus,” Bassil added.

He said the political parties would then seek an agreement with the PM-designate on “the formation of a government that would enjoy the confidence of the people and the influential parliamentary blocs, in addition to the Arab and international communities.”

Bassil however criticized Hariri for “putting the country and the people in the face of the unknown through his recent resignation.”

The FPM chief also said that Hariri should not have made his choice “in the last moment before the binding parliamentary consultations” and that he should not “demand postponement or seek to impose a date for the consultations as he wishes and in a selective manner that serves his own interest.”

Setting a date for the consultations or postponing them is “an exclusive jurisdiction for the President who uses it in a manner that preserves the public interest and the Constitution,” Bassil added.