New Lebanon president starts consultations on naming PM [Video]

New Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will begin parliamentary consultations Monday over designating a prime minister to form a government that will have to face major challenges in the crisis-hit country.

The consultations, a constitutional requirement under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, come just days after Aoun’s election amid foreign pressure for swift progress — particularly from the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The small Mediterranean nation had been without a president since October 2022, run by a caretaker government despite a crushing economic crisis and a war between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel.

Names floated for the post of prime minster, which is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, include current caretaker premier Najib Mikati, anti-Hezbollah lawmaker Fouad Makhzoumi, and Nawaf Salam, presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Aoun’s consultations with political blocs begin at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) with a meeting with powerful parliament speaker …