Hariri Says Doesn't Want to Return as Premier
Ex-PM Saad Hariri declared Tuesday that he is not a candidate for the PM post and called on all political forces to withdraw his name from any deliberations in this regard.
Hariri issued his statement following separate talks with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani and Lebanese General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.
Below is the full text of an English-language statement distributed by Hariri’s press office:
“I had committed not to take a political position before the pronouncement of the judgment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on the assassination of the martyr Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and before having completed contacts with friendly countries, the international community and Lebanese political forces regarding the initiative that President Emmanuel Macron presented during his recent visit to Lebanon.
In reality, I consider that the renewed international interest in our country, and especially the initiative of President Macron and the visits of a certain number of international and Arab officials, represent an opportunity which could be the last and cannot be failed, to rebuild our beloved capital Beirut, and to achieve a series of reforms that the Lebanese have demanded and that we have been trying to implement for many years.
This is an opportunity to break the economic and financial isolation that Lebanon suffers from, with external resources that would first allow to stop the frightening collapse and then gradually shift to resuming growth.
With my sincere thanks to all those who proposed my name as a candidate to form a government that would undertake this national task, that is noble and difficult at the same time, I noticed, like all other Lebanese, that certain political forces are still in a state of severe denial of the reality of Lebanon and the Lebanese, and only see this as a new opportunity for blackmail, with the sole aim of keeping small power gains or even realizing personal dreams of later power. Unfortunately, it is a blackmail that goes beyond their political partners, to become a blackmail of the entire country, of the renewed international attention and of the livelihood and dignity of the Lebanese.
Therefore, based on my firm belief that the most important thing at this point is to preserve the opportunity for Lebanon and the Lebanese to rebuild their capital and implement the well-known reforms that are long overdue, and to pave the way for the commitment of friends of the international community to help face the crisis and then invest in the return of growth, I declare that I am not a candidate to head the new government and I call on everyone to withdraw my name from the deliberations in this regard.
The only starting point is for the President of the Republic to respect the constitution and immediately call for binding parliamentary consultations in accordance with Article 53, and that the heresy of composing the government before designating the Prime Minister ceases once and for all.
Of course, with the Future parliamentary bloc, and in the parliamentary consultations that the constitution imposes without delay and that the Lebanese are impatiently awaiting, we will name the candidate that we consider competent and capable of forming a government guaranteeing the success of this unique and last opportunity for our country. We will also bet that this government is capable in form and substance of carrying out this mission, so that we cooperate with it in Parliament in order to carry out the reconstruction of Beirut, implement the necessary reforms and pave the way for our friends of the international community to support Lebanon at the humanitarian, economic, financial and investment levels.”
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