Lebanese Presidency hit back on Wednesday at three former premiers, rejecting their accusation that the president has violated the Constitution and the Taif Accord.
“Discussions held by President Michel Aoun don’t violate the Lebanese Constitution or the Taif Accord,” the Lebanese Presidency said in a statement.
It noted that the Constitution “doesn’t provide for a time limit to hold the binding consultations with parliamentary blocs.”
“If the former premiers know the consequences of hastiness in forming the new government, they would have not issued such statement,” the presidency added.
Meanwhile, the presidency stressed that the discussions held by President Aoun “aimed at facilitating the designations of a new PM and the formation of the new government.”
Former premiers Tamam Salam, Najib Mikati and Fouad Siniora had criticized “violations on the prime minister’s prerogatives … by naming possible premiers before the binding parliamentary consultations take place, and this is what President Aoun and [caretaker Foreign] Minister Gebran Bassil did.”
Caretaker PM Saad Hariri offered his resignation on October 29, nearly two weeks after thousands of demonstrators took to streets on October 17 (2019) in protest against imposing new taxes, hard livelihood conditions and corruption.
Source: Lebanese media
