Lebanon’s PM-Designate Steps Down

Date: 26 September 2020 - 21:47

News ID: ۸۳۲۰۴

BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanon’s Prime Minister designate, Mustapha Adib, has stepped down from the task of forming a government to tackle the worst crisis since the nation’s 1975-1990 civil war.
"The reason for my resignation was that the political factions did not meet my conditions. They failed to refuse to politicize the process of forming a government,” the official said in a televised statement.
The resignation announcement reportedly followed Adib’s meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun. After a month of shuffles, the prime minister-designate has failed to agree on key positions in the new government, including the one of the finance minister, to take the country out of political crisis.
Adib announced he was stepping down and wished his successor well in the "hard task” of forming a government.
He also noted that the kind of cabinet that he wanted to establish "was bound to fail” and that he was keen on protecting national unity.
"I apologize to the Lebanese people,” he added.
On Monday, President Michel Aoun said that Adib was failing to take into account the views of parliamentary factions in Lebanon while trying to form a cabinet.
Adib, former ambassador to Berlin, was picked on Aug. 31 to form a cabinet.
Lebanon is currently mired in the country’s worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. The country faced a further knock when a huge explosion on Aug. 4 at Beirut port ruined a swathe of the capital.
The blast took place in Beirut port warehouses storing highly explosive material, specifically ammonium nitrate, commonly used in both fertilizer and bombs.
The explosion — one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has ever seen — flattened much of the strategic port and left buildings in ruin.
Following the blast, the US and European countries have been mounting pressure on Lebanese officials to form a government that secures the West’s interests.
The United States on September 8 slapped sanctions on two former cabinet ministers in Lebanon over support for Hezbollah as it vowed to isolate the resistance movement.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid two visits to Lebanon, where he called for a "new political pact” among Lebanese political factions and said he had proposed a roadmap to authorities to unlock billions of dollars in funds from the international community.
In a meeting with Aoun, Macron threatened Lebanese leaders with sanctions if they do not submit to reforms and a "political change,” Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network reported.
The French president’s colonial-style sojourn sparked a swift backlash among the Lebanese nation.