AA/Beyoth
Lebanon’s nominated Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that talks on government formation were drawing closer.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Press Office, and consulted by an Anadolu Agency correspondent, Mikati was speaking with President Michel Aoun at the end of his meeting at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Babada (east of Beirut).
“A new meeting with President Aun will be contacted tomorrow to agree on a date,” Mikati said without giving further details.
Late last July, Aun instructed Mikati to form a government, and the next day the new prime minister of Lebanon began consultations to this end.
Since 26 July, Mikati has been working to form a new cabinet, following a challenge from Saad Hariri due to disagreements with President Aun on the composition of the new cabinet.
The delay in government formation in a country that has been hit by the worst economic crisis in its history since the end of 2019 has made the situation worse.
The crisis in the Cedar Country, caused an unprecedented collapse of the Lebanese pound (the local currency), declining living conditions, and a substantial increase in poverty and crime rates, as well as fuel shortages. Medicines and goods.
At another level Mikati indicated that “the development of South Lebanon was also discussed during the meeting with Michel Aoun”.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching rockets into northern Israel earlier this Friday.
The Lebanese Shia movement announced that it had fired dozens of rockets at Israeli targets in response to Israeli Air Force raids on empty spaces in the al-Jermak and al-Shawkir areas on Thursday evening.
For its part, Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adrei said that “Hezbollah fired 19 rockets from the north of the Sheba region, 3 of them fell inside Lebanon. And did not cross the border, while 10 rockets were intercepted, and 6 others descended into the barren land, without casualties or damage”.
Lebanon’s designated prime minister called for a “return to peace in southern Lebanon, emphasizing that Beirut fully respects” Resolution 1701.
In August 2006 the Security Council adopted Resolution 1701, which calls for an end to all hostilities between Lebanon and Israel following the outbreak of clashes between the two sides in July of the same year.
* Translated from Arabic by Majdi Ismail
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