Mikati hands Aoun govt. draft line-up

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati handed President Michel Aoun the new government’s draft line-up on Wednesday, after two days of non-binding consultations with MPs over the shape and program of the government that he intends to form.

"I have presented to President Aoun the government line-up that I consider appropriate in these circumstances," Mikati said from Baabda, after meeting with Aoun.

"We all know that time is important," Mikati went on to say, as Lebanon's multiple crises deepen with no solution in sight.

He added that Aoun will study the draft line-up and reply to him.

Former MP Ali Darwish told al-Jadeed that the government line-up might be similar to the previous one and that it will likely not be a government of "pure technocrats."

Mikati had won the support of more than 50 legislators last week to keep his post following last month's parliamentary elections.

The latest government, led by Mikati, had only been in place since September 2021 after a 13-month vacuum and had become a caretaker Cabinet after the May 15 parliamentary elections.

In Lebanon's unique and chaotic brand of sectarian consensus politics, forming a government can take months, even when the country faces multiple emergencies.

Between the two latest elections, two out of four years were spent under a caretaker government with limited powers as the country's political barons haggled over cabinet line-ups.