Beirut, Jan 15, (dpa/GNA) – Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, on Monday assigned Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, a former ambassador to the United Nations and current head judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with the task of forming a new government.
Salam was named after he garnered 84 votes in the 128-member parliament, the director general of the presidential palace announced.
He added that Salam is due to return to Lebanon on Tuesday, to meet the president.
Aoun began consultations with lawmakers and the major parliamentary blocs earlier Monday at Lebanon’s presidential Palace, to designate a prime minister.
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement and their allies, the Shiite Amal Movement, did not name anyone for the premier’s post.
Naming a prime minister came a few days after Aoun was elected president.
Hezbollah and their allies in the country had always objected to both Aoun and Salam for the two posts.
The election of Aoun, who is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, reflected a shift in the power balance in the country which has been over the past few years controlled by Hezbollah and their Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December.
According to political experts, naming Salam has dealt another blow to Hezbollah after the Lebanese parliament managed to elect Aoun.
The prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim according to Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing government rules, while the presidency should be a Maronite Christian and the house speaker a Shiite Muslim.
GNA