Hariri named Lebanon PM following in father's footsteps

Saad Hariri, son of slain billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, pledged to form a cabinet that would unite rival political camps after he was named Lebanon's new prime minister yesterday.

"We will begin consultations with all parliamentary blocs based on our commitment to a national unity government in which all main blocs are represented and which is harmonious, functional, and free of obstruction and paralysis," Hariri said.

Under the current unity government, headed by Fuad Siniora, militant group Hizbollah and its allies have veto power over major decisions.

The government was formed in May 2008, ending a political crisis that had brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war.

The crisis left more than 100 people dead and was defused following a Qatari-brokered deal that led to the election of army commander Michel Sleiman as president and the formation of a unity government.

But Siniora, elected to parliament in a general election three weeks ago, was unable to form a cabinet that satisfied Lebanon's feuding political camps until July 2008.

While Hizbollah and its allies want to maintain the status quo in the new cabinet, Hariri said ahead of his nomination that he would only accept another unity government if the Hizbollah alliance surrenders its veto powers.

The Lebanese government was effectively paralysed in November 2006 when five Shiite ministers backed by Hizbollah and and its ally Amal resigned, leaving the community unrepresented in government.

Pro-Syrian speaker Nabih Berri, who heads Amal and was re-elected to a fifth consecutive term last Thursday, refused to convene parliament for 18 months as he said the government was illegitimate and unconstitutional.

Hariri's US-backed March 14 alliance won 71 of parliament's 128 seats in the June 7 election while the rival March 8 alliance, led by Hizbollah and backed by Syria and Iran, secured 57.

Hariri was nominated for the premiership by 86 of Lebanon's 128 MPs - the 71 from his own majority alliance, plus Berri and his bloc of 12 MPs and two Armenians, the various groups said.

Berri's allies in the Hizbollah-led alliance, including retired general Michel Aoun's Christian bloc, said they abstained from naming anyone for the top post, reserved for a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon's complex system of sectarian power-sharing.

Hariri now faces the task of forming a cabinet that satisfies both his allies and rivals.

Berri said he had nominated Hariri on condition he form another unity government.