Mr. Saad Hariri, the designated Lebanese Prime Minister, reiterated his intention to form a government of specialists to implement reforms, in accordance with the French initiative.
In a speech after the end of the non-binding parliamentary consultations he held in the House of Representatives, Hariri said, “The meetings today were all positive, and the focus was all on the reforms that we must undertake as soon as possible.”
He added, “This government will be a government of specialists, in order to do the quick work according to the French reform paper, which is really reforms that we were supposed to take for a long time, but we will do them today, and unfortunately, all this delay has brought us here.”
“There is a breakdown in the country, and the Lebanese are now in another location, and we must deal with this opportunity by setting aside all our political differences and being positive, in order to restore confidence between the citizen and the state or between the state and the international community, and we must do our duty in terms of reforms that we agree to,” he said. The only way for this is to expedite the formation of a government that can work to complete all these reforms and the program of the International Monetary Fund, and from this point of view we will have brought the country to stop the collapse and we are working at the same time to rebuild Beirut. “
According to the Lebanese constitution, the designated head of government conducts parliamentary consultations to form the government and signs with the president of the republic the decree to form it … and the government must submit its ministerial statement to the House of Representatives to gain confidence within thirty days from the date of the decree of its formation.
The government does not exercise its powers before it gains confidence, nor after it has resigned or is considered resigned, except to run business.
Al-Hariri was assigned yesterday to form the new government, after Dr. Mustafa Adeeb, the Prime Minister-designate, announced on 26 September his apology for continuing the task of forming the new government, amid difficulties encountered in the process of forming his government around ministerial portfolios.
Since October 17 of last year, Lebanon has been witnessing unprecedented popular demonstrations that began by calling for an improvement in the standard of living, then evolved into calls for the departure of the political class in light of the economic and financial crisis in the country and the rise in the exchange rate of the dollar against the national currency (the lira).
