Lebanon PM seeks advice on cabinet

Lebanon’s prime minister designate Najib Mikati is scheduled to begin consultations with parliamentary blocs on his cabinet line-up.

Following the consultations starting on Thursday, the Lebanese parliament will then decide whether to give vote of confidence to Mikati’s picks for the cabinet posts, Naharnet reported.

Mikati began the cabinet formation process on Wednesday by visiting the former Lebanese prime ministers, including the outgoing Premier Saad Hariri.

On Tuesday, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman issued a decree appointing Hezbollah-backed candidate Mikati as the country’s new prime minister.

Mikati won 68 (out of the parliament’s 128 possible) votes to be poised as the new Lebanese prime minister following two days of discussions between law-makers and Sleiman.

In a televised speech, shortly after his installation, Mikati reached out for all Lebanese factions and called on them to overcome differences and participate in an inclusive unity government.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri had also nominated himself for the post.

Hariri’s government collapsed nearly two weeks ago following the resignation of 11 ministers from the coalition cabinet in a dispute over the US-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) investigating the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri, Saad’s father.

Hariri was killed along with more than 20 other people in a massive car bombing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut in February 2005.

According to reports, the tribunal plans to charge some members of Hezbollah with the assassination.

Hezbollah, however, denies any involvement in the assassination, describing it as ‘part of an American-Israeli conspiracy against Lebanon.’