Saniora to head new Lebanese government

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud appointed the anti-Syrian coalition’s candidate Fuad Saniora as prime minister today to head the first Cabinet in 30 years to be free of Syrian interference.

Saniora, the former finance minister, arrived at the presidential palace shortly after Lahoud completed consultations with parliament members to name the new premier.

Of the 128 politicians, 126 nominated Saniora for the job.

Saniora, a veteran banker and long-time close aide of murdered former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, became the front-runner when he was nominated by the biggest bloc in the new parliament headed by Hariri’s son, Saad. Saad Hariri’s allies in parliament supported his choice.

“Based on the parliamentary consultations held by President Lahoud, the president summoned ... former minister Fuad Saniora and asked him to form the new government,” said a presidential palace statement read by Rafik Shalala, Lahoud’s media advisor.

Shalala said Lahoud was currently meeting with Saniora, and Saniora would later address the media.

Lahoud began consultations according to protocol by meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and former Speaker Hussein al-Husseini. He then met with anti-Syrian legislator Michel Aoun who returned to the Baabda presidential palace for the first time since being ousted by Syrian and Lebanese troops led by Lahoud in 1990. Aoun was serving as interim prime minister at the time.

Lahoud was obliged to designate the legislator favoured by the majority even though relations between him and Saniora were often tense as a result of political infighting between the late premier and the president.

Saniora served as finance minister in governments headed by the late Hariri, whose assassination in February provoked a sea-change in Lebanese politics, sparking the Syrian troop withdrawal in April.

Hariri’s bloc comprises 36 MPs in the 128-seat parliament but, with its anti-Syrian allies, it is expected to muster 72 votes. The allies include Druse leader Walid Jumblatt and Christian leader Michel Aoun, who reconciled with Hariri on Wednesday after a bitter dispute during the elections.

The Hariri bloc said its decision to nominate Saniora was based on his adherence to Christian-Muslim coexistence and national reconcilition, as well as his pledge to carry out Rafik Hariri’s reform and development program.

The anti-Syrian opposition triumphed in the elections, Lebanon’s first since Syria ended a 29-year military presence in the country.