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| Nawaf Salam named PM with sweeping 84 votes as Hezbollah decries ''exclusion'' — Naharnet | |
| 2025-01-14 | |
[NAHARNET] Prominent Lebanese diplomat and judge Nawaf Salam was named PM-designate on Monday after he won sweeping support from legislators, as Hezbollah accused some parties of "staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion."
Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice and his nomination was made by Western-backed groups as well as independents in the Lebanese parliament. Salam is backed by Saudi Arabia and western countries. Monday's nomination of Salam during binding consultations with President Joseph Aoun is a major blow to Hezbollah, which is also a powerful political party, after its militant wing was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel. Salam will have a difficult mission ahead of him, as Lebanon truce with Israel that ended the nearly Israel-Hezbollah war. Salam will also have to work on getting the small nation out of its historic five-year economic meltdown. Salam's nomination and last week's selection of the country's army commander Aoun as president is likely to lead to flow of funds from Western and oil-rich Arab nations to Lebanon to help in the reconstruction process. Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc meanwhile voiced regret over the manner in which Salam was nominated. ''Our meeting with the president was to express our regret over those who want to harm the presidential tenure's consensual start,'' the head of the bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said after the bloc's meeting with Aoun. According to media reports, the bloc asked for the postponement of its meeting with Aoun until Tuesday before eventually reversing its decision. ''Once again some are staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion, in a deliberate and spiteful manner,'' Raad decried. ''We made a positive step upon the election of the president and we were hoping to meet the hand that had always boasted about being extended, but it suddenly was severed,'' the MP added. ''It is our right to demand a government to respect the National Pact, and any government that contradicts with coexistence has no legitimacy. We will monitor and carry on with all due calm and wisdom and we will watch their actions for removing the occupier from our land, returning the captives, reconstruction and the correct implementation of 1701 in a manner that preserves national unity,'' Raad went on to say. Related: Nawaf Salam 05/26/2024 'When genocidal terrorists praise ruling, justice was not served' Nawaf Salam 03/21/2023 Franjieh: A 'life-or-death' candidate for Speaker Berri Nawaf Salam 06/14/2022 Bassil warns against Line 29, says won't name Miqati as PM Related: Joseph Aoun 01/13/2025 IDF targets suspects in south Lebanon with drone strike Joseph Aoun 01/13/2025 Hezbollah, Amal Message in Lebanon: Here We Are! Joseph Aoun 01/12/2025 Weakening of Hezbollah allowed Lebanon to fill vacant presidency — Naharnet | |
| Posted by:Fred |