Saturday, February 11, 2012

Saad Hariri named Lebanese prime minister

By: Our Staff Reporter | June 27, 2009, 6:32 pm |

Saad Hariri, son of slain billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, was named Lebanon's new prime minister on Saturday, a presidential statement said. "According to the constitution and after the president consulted with the speaker of parliament and parliamentarians, he (Lebanese President Michel Sleiman) summoned Saad Hariri and tasked him with forming a new government," the statement said. In total, Hariri was proposed by 86 of Lebanon's 128 deputies -- the 71 from his own majority alliance, plus pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri and his bloc of 12 MPs and two Armenian MPs, the various groups said. Berri's allies in the Hezbollah-led minority coalition said they abstained from naming anyone for the top post, reserved for a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon's complex sectarian political system.