Lebanon to form new govt. in days

After three months of deadlock over the lineup of the next Lebanese cabinet, President Michel Sleiman says the country’s next government would be formed in a few days.

On Saturday, leading Lebanese daily As-Safir said Sleiman’s latest talks over the issue with prime minister designate Najib Mikati had been hopeful.

Sources with the presidential Baabda Palace quoted the president as saying that Mikati would form the government before a parliamentary session scheduled for June 8.

The Lebanese government fell apart on January 12, when 10 ministers from the March 8 Alliance, which is led by the Hezbollah resistance movement, and another cabinet member named by Sleiman resigned, depleting more than a third of the cabinet.

The resignations were in protests at former Premier Saad Hariri’s ‘inability to overcome US pressure.’

The former ministers had said that the former government had succumbed to Washington’s attempt to implicate Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri — the former premier’s father and predecessor.

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected the allegations, saying they were part of “a dangerous project that is targeting the resistance.”