Beirut, Dec. 3, 2022 (Xinhua) — Acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on his country’s political forces today (Saturday) to provide the political will to elect a new president for Lebanon as soon as possible to complete the contract of constitutional institutions.
“Our country is going through a suffocating crisis that affects different sectors,” Mikati said in a speech during the inauguration of the 64th session of the ‘Beirut Arab International Book Fair’ on the Beirut waterfront.
“What is needed above all is the political will of the various political forces and currents to complete the contract of the constitutional institutions, electing a new president of the Republic as soon as possible”, he continued.
Last November 1, Lebanon entered a period of presidential vacuum, with the end of the mandate of former president Michel Aoun, on October 31, without electing a successor within the constitutional deadline.
The Lebanese parliament failed 8 times during its sittings, from the end of last September to the beginning of this December, to elect a successor to Aoun, in the absence of consensus on the name of a figure who enjoys the support of a sufficient number of votes of the parliamentary blocs.
Mikati stressed that the political will is also needed to “complete the approval of the reform laws before moving on to the approval of the final agreement with the International Monetary Fund, in order to ensure the appropriate opportunities for the promised economic recovery”.
Lebanon and the International Monetary Fund announced on April 7 that they had reached a preliminary agreement for a loan of 3 billion dollars, to be spent over 4 years, and Lebanon has pledged to carry out the reforms.
Instead, Mikati praised the Beirut Book Fair, describing it as “a civilized meeting space that has always distinguished Beirut by its embrace of writers and publishing houses, and by the space of freedom available for the ideas of its writers and intellectuals. “
The Beirut International Arab Book Fair will be held from December 3 to 11, with the participation of 133 publishing houses, most of them Lebanese, as well as the participation of Arab houses from Egypt, the Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman and others foreign houses, most of which are French.
