Report: National Struggle Front to Back Hariri's Pick for Premiership

The opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc and the centrist National Struggle Front have agreed to throw their weight behind the person that ex-Premier Saad Hariri will name to lead the new government, a report said Tuesday.

Caretaker Minister Wael Abu Faour, who is close to National Struggle Front chief MP Walid Jumblat, held talks with Hariri in Riyadh and returned to Beirut late Monday.

As Safir newspaper said that the talks culminated in a deal for Jumblat's bloc to name the same person that Hariri, who is the head of al-Mustaqbal movement, will back for the premiership on condition that he be a non-provocative man and acceptable by all sides.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora was also among Hariri's major visitors over the weekend.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Nuhad al-Mashnouq told An Nahar daily that the talks in Riyadh focused on the party's call for a neutral technocrat cabinet hat would oversee the parliamentary elections.

Any discussion about a non-technocrat government is out of the question, he said.

The MP also ruled out bringing back caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to power to head a neutral technocrat government.

“The man has said that he was a candidate for the elections and a neutral technocrat government requires a prime minister who hasn't announced his candidacy,” al-Mashnouq told An Nahar.

The lawmaker shrugged off a scenario similar to 2011 when Jumblat's 12-member bloc along with the March 8 majority led by Hizbullah brought Miqati to the premiership.

Hariri headed a cabinet in 2009, until its collapse in 2011 after March 8 alliance ministers withdrew from his national unity government.

Al-Mashnouq denied that al-Mustaqbal and the National Struggle Front had struck a deal during Abu Faour's visit to Riyadh.

“The results of the visit of the Front's delegation haven't appeared yet,” he said. “We haven't yet discussed names because we are waiting for an agreement on the type of the government.”

Miqati resigned last month over differences between cabinet members on the formation of the authority that would oversee the elections and the extension of the tenure of Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, who handed over his post to Brig. Gen. Roger Salem after reaching the age of retirement.

Although the March 14 opposition's most factions have ruled out naming Miqati to head a technocrat cabinet, the March 8 majority led by Hizbullah hasn't yet settled on the person that it sees fit for the job.

Reports have said that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who is a major member of the March 8 alliance, is refusing to name Miqati.