BEIRUT: Saad Hariri was reappointed Lebanon s prime minister on Wednesday after he stepped down from the post last week over rising tension with his opponents, a presidential statement said.
Hariri was called on by President Michel Sleiman to form a government after 73 out of a possible 128 lawmakers nominated him to the post.
Following consultations with the speaker of parliament and MPs … the president has called on Saad Hariri to form a government, the statement said.
Hariri abandoned a first bid to form a national unity government last week after his political opponents led by Hezbollah rejected his proposed government line-up.
Hariri, 39, the son of slain ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, is head of the US- and Saudi-backed parliamentary majority which defeated a rival alliance backed by Syria and Iran in a June election.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri and his allies in the opposition on Wednesday abstained from naming anyone for the premiership, which is reserved for a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon s complex sectarian political system.
Berri s parliamentary bloc had voted in favor of Hariri s first appointment following the June vote.
Hariri has accused his political rivals of blocking efforts to unlock a continuing political stalemate over the new cabinet.
Hezbollah and its allies however insist that the line-up proposed by Hariri is not acceptable.
The mounting tension has sparked fears of a new crisis in Lebanon which came close to civil war last year following a drawn-out political stalemate. -AFP
