Miqati: Changes to Tribunal Should be Done Through Consent of All Lebanese

Premier-designate Najib Miqati has reiterated that the Hizbullah-led alliance did not put preconditions when it nominated him and stressed he wants “to rescue the nation.”

He said he did not seek the position. His love for Lebanon forced his hand. "When I saw what was happening in the country, the deadlock, I said it's time to stand. The real motivation is to rescue the nation."

"There were no preconditions to my nomination," Miqati told TIME magazine. "If I want to change anything about the process of the tribunal, it has to be done in dialogue and with the consensus of all Lebanese."

That may be the case, but members of Hizbullah's coalition certainly expect him to come around to their point of view, said TIME.

"What we want is for him to rescue Lebanon and to protect the resistance from the indictments," said Development and Liberation bloc MP Qassem Hashem.

"If the tribunal is targeting the resistance, he will reject the indictments," he said.