Reports: Miqati Emerges as Candidate for PM Post

Foreign efforts have been launched to find a “replacement for PM-designate Saad Hariri” and it seems that there is French-Saudi consensus on ex-PM Najib Miqati, media reports said.

Noting that the efforts are “serious,” al-Akhbar newspaper said Miqati has been communicating with Washington, Paris and Riyadh.

“An agreement on Miqati’s nomination is not guaranteed yet, domestically, but there is consensus in principle on him abroad, especially in Riyadh,” the daily added, quoting unnamed sources.

“Hariri is not opposed to this, and perhaps he has become convinced of the impossibility of his success in his mission, mainly in light of the Saudi veto on him and secondly due to the difficulty to reach an agreement with President Michel Aoun and ex-minister Jebran Bassil,” the sources added.

“Hariri will endorse Miqati’s nomination to satisfy the kingdom and to refute obstruction accusations and implicate Bassil with this designation, seeing as Miqati will not be less strict in his conditions,” the sources went on to say.

According to the sources, Miqati is proposing the same initiative that he had put forward in the past, which calls for the formation of a 20- or 24-seat government comprising political and specialist ministers.