[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday he was stepping down after the opposition rejected a team he proposed earlier this week after more than 10 weeks of trying to form a unity government."Given that my commitment to forming a government of national unity has run up against difficulties that everyone now knows about, I announce that I have informed the president of the republic that I have abandoned trying to form a government," he told journalists in Beirut. "I will step down from forming a government, in the hope that this decision will be for the benefit of Lebanon."
"I am going to Texas and you can go to Hell!"
The Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies rejected a draft government proposed by Hariri this week. Hariri, a Saudi- and U.S.-backed billionaire, said he had held "rounds and rounds of consultations which always ended in obstruction."
President Michel Suleiman is expected to call for a new round of consultations with lawmakers to nominate a new prime minister. It is widely expected that Hariri will be selected once again by members of his majority coalition.