BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Hezbollah-backed new premier was preparing Wednesday for talks on forming a government in the deeply divided country as calm returned to the streets after protests over his appointment.
Prime minister designate Najib Mikati, a moderate billionaire businessman, was to make protocol visits to five of his predecessors before launching talks on Thursday with parliamentary groups. Security was tight and several schools remained closed, but traffic returned to normal following a “day of rage” by supporters of outgoing premier Saad Hariri.
Anti-riot troops patrolled the streets of Beirut and the northern port city of Tripoli, a Sunni bastion and Mikati’s hometown, where protests the day before had turned violent. There were no casualties. Banners reading “Mikati, appointed by Khamenei,” Iran’s supreme leader, remained hoisted in Tripoli as tanks were deployed outside Mikati’s home and offices.
Residents of Tripoli said they planned to set up a tent in a city square around noon to protest his appointment. Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the premier must be a Sunni Muslim. Mikati is a Sunni, but supporters of Hariri, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United States, view his appointment as a bid by the the Shiite militant Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, to gain more political clout.
The 55-year-old tycoon was tasked with forming a new government after Hezbollah and its allies toppled Hariri’s cabinet because of a long-running dispute over a UN court probing the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, Saad’s father. The Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon is reportedly readying to indict Hezbollah members in connection with the Hariri murder, a move the militant group has warned against.
Washington on Tuesday accused Hezbollah of wresting government control through intimidation, and vowed that the STL would press on with its work.
