Lebanese parliament renames Hariri for premiership

Sep 16, 2009, 13:04 GMT

Beirut - Seventy-three Lebanese parliamentarians, most of them from the majority party, on Wednesday named their leader, Saad Hariri, as premier for the second time since the June parliamentary elections.

Hariri stepped down Thursday after accusing the Hezbollah-led opposition of hampering his efforts to form a national unity government.

Hariri was backed by 71 parliamentarians from his majority party and two from the opposition's Armenian Tashnag party.

Hariri's reappointment is expected to restart the debate between opposition groups and the majority over the planned makeup of the cabinet.

According to the lineup Hariri presented before he stepped down, 15 ministers would be from the majority, 10 from the opposition and five independents loyal to President Michel Suleiman, in order to give the president the tipping vote.

But, during deliberations for the past two days between parliamentarians and Suleiman, opposition parties and their ally, Christian leader Michel Aoun, witheld support from Hariri because, they said, Hariri 'did not commit to form a cabinet based on the 15- 10-5 formula.'

According to the Lebanese constitution, Hariri has to name a cabinet which includes all the rival Lebanese factions and have a balanced representation in accordance with the country's religious system.

Since Hariri's holds a parliamentary majority, his party has the upper hand in naming a premier, usually a Sunni Muslim according to the constitution.

On Monday Hariri said 'when I get appointed I will start negotiating, and [then] I would assess the level of cooperation by political parties,'

Hariri's allies said that it was up to the new premier-designate to decide upon the continued validity of the 15-10-5 formula, stressing the need to resume deliberations on the cabinet issue from scratch.

'I have kept my hand extended but [the opposition] has always rejected our open approach,' he said.

Saad Hariri, is the son of late premier Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a car bomb blast in 2005, along with 20 others.