Hariri 'Won't Step Down', May Present Technocrat Govt.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will not step down and may resort to the option of submitting a “technocrat government” line-up to President Michel Aoun, sources from his movement said.

Hariri “will not step down and will not count on the new allies, who have started to topple the political settlement, nor on his old allies. He will only rely on the Constitution,” Mustaqbal Movement sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

“According to the Constitution, no one can remove him,” the sources added, noting that there is “an attempt to topple the domestic Lebanese settlement and push Hariri to accept a government in which the balance would be tipped in favor of a certain camp.”

Such a government would “drag Lebanon into coordinating with the Syrian regime and breaching the dissociation policy,” the sources warned.

The sources said another objective might be pushing Hariri to “step down from the formation mission so that another figure could be tasked with forming a government.”

The PM-designate “will not bow to any pressure or interference in the formation process and those who reject to take part in a consensus government can join the opposition,” the sources stressed, revealing that Hariri could submit a “technocrat government.”

The sources also pointed out that “some parties, perhaps including the Free Patriotic Movement, are seeking to push him towards a certain step in order to torpedo his mission and name another premier.”

“This is out of the question for him,” the sources emphasized.