Hariri says he is still working to form government
beirut — Efforts to form a new Lebanese government after months of negotiation remain “on their way to a solution”, prime minister designate Saad Al Hariri said on Monday.
Last week President Michel Aoun said a government would be formed “very soon” and a government source said it would be agreed during the weekend, but press reports on Monday cited senior politicians saying problems persisted.
Parties have been jostling since May’s parliament election over ministerial positions in a new national unity government, but the political uncertainty has contributed to fears that Lebanon faces a looming economic crisis.
“Contacts continue to form a government and the issue is not impossible, as some are trying to suggest,” Hariri said in televised comments to reporters.
Lebanon has one of the world’s most indebted governments, owing about 150 per cent of gross domestic product, and the International Monetary Fund warned early this year that Beirut must urgently undertake fiscal reforms.
President Aoun said in a Twitter post on Monday that circumstances required a rapid formation of the government. “Forming the government is taking longer than expected but we will get there,” Hariri said on Tuesday. On his first appointment in 2009, he resigned as prime minister-designate after three months, resetting the process of forming a government.
He was reappointed to form the next government by political parties and on his second attempt was able to get an agreement.
The delay has increased concern over the threat of an economic crisis in the heavily-indebted country.
Lebanon has the third largest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world at more than 150 per cent, and a new government is expected to start moves towards bringing down the deficit. —
Contacts continue to form a government and the issue is not impossible, as some are trying to suggest. Forming the government is taking longer than expected but we will get there
Saad Al Hariri, Lebanon’s PM-designate