Reports: Hariri Blames Lebanese Parties for Obstructing Rescue Plan

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri reportedly said, while chatting with journalists, that "sometimes, one should step back to be able to step forward again."

Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, on Sunday, also reported Hariri blaming other parties for the lack of cooperation in a plan to rescue the country.

“We won in previous parliamentary elections, but what is the meaning of winning if other parties won’t join our efforts to achieve political and administrative reforms,” Hariri said, according to an MP from al-Mustaqbal bloc.

The lawmaker anonymously told Asharq al-Awsat that Hariri accused his partners in politics of obstructing the CEDRE conference “that was supposed to save Lebanon from its financial and economic crises.”

The ex-PM also reportedly said that he’d had to step back from forming a government “because some parties had refused a rescue government consisting of specialist, non-politicized and independent ministers,” as French Minister Emmanuel Macron had suggested in his initiative back then.

“Some parties have wasted many chances to rescue the country,” Hariri reportedly said.

The MP added that Hariri considers that Hizbullah along with other parties have not abided by the ministerial statements they had committed to, by violating Lebanon’s policy of staying out of regional affairs and others’ conflicts.