Jennifer Ugwueke
Consultations are set to start monday to name a new Lebanese Prime Minister, with the envoy to Berlin emerging as a front-runner, as French President Emmanuel Macron is to visit the disaster-hit Country.
Adib, a relatively unknown 48-year-old diplomat and close aide to former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, has received backing from the Country’s Sunni Muslim political heavyweights, including the Future Movement party headed by former premier Saad Hariri.
Although Adib still needs to be formally endorsed during Monday’s consultations, but President Michel Aoun and Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement have both vowed to agree on any nominee supported by the Country’s top Sunni political figures.
Under multi-dimensional Lebanon’s political system, the Prime Minister must be a Sunni, the Presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian and the post of parliamentary speaker goes to a Shiite.
Consultations to name a new Prime Minister were set to start at 0600 GMT in the Presidential palace in Baabda near Beirut, with a meeting between the President and former premier Mikati, who was expected to name Adib.
The President was expected to conclude consultations at 1015 GMT, according to the National News Agency.
A majority of lawmakers must decide on whom to name as premier before Aoun tasks the candidate with forming a new Government, an often drawn-out process that can take months.