BEIRUT: Former premier Najib Mikati was tipped on Monday as the favorite candidate to be appointed Lebanon prime minister after securing the backing of the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies.
"His name is prevailing among all other options," MP Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement allied with Hezbollah, told AFP.
He said Mikati, a telecoms tycoon, had emerged as a top choice given his position as a centrist politician who has good relations with the country’s feuding parties.
The Lebanese press was unanimous on Monday in presenting Mikati as the candidate set to be nominated by Hezbollah, which on January 12 forced the collapse of Saudi- and Western-backed Saad Hariri’s unity government.
"Mikati comes forward as a candidate backed by the opposition," said the Arabic-language daily Al-Akbar, which is close to Hezbollah.
"Hezbollah’s surprise: Mikati," added the independent daily Al-Balad while Hariri’s Al-Mustaqbal newspaper said the Shia insurgent Hezbollah had turned its sights on Mikati after dropping veteran politician Omar Karameh.
President Michel Sleiman was to begin two days of consultations with parliamentary groups at noon (1000 GMT).
Mikati, 55, submitted his candidacy on Sunday saying he was coming forward in the hope of being a consensual candidate.
"I consider myself a centrist, consensual and moderate candidate," he said in a statement.
"I don’t view my candidacy as a challenge to anyone but rather as an opportunity to restore contacts among (rival) leaders," he added.
An adviser to Mikati, who was elected to parliament in 2009 on Hariri’s list, told AFP that Mikati did not wish to be viewed as Hezbollah’s candidate.
"He is the candidate of a government of national salvation aimed at preventing deep divisions in the country," he said, requesting anonymity.
But members of Hariri’s coalition immediately denounced Mikati as a traitor.
"This is treason, he is backstabbing Hariri," MP Okab Sakr told Lebanese radio.
"He was elected as part of Hariri’s coalition and as such he should have consulted with Hariri concerning his candidacy," Sakr added. "It is clear that he has coordinated all this with Hezbollah and its allies."
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Sunday that his party and its allies had no intention of excluding their political rivals from the new cabinet.
"If our candidate is successful, we will ask him to form a government of national partnership in which all parties will participate," he said.
"We respect everyone’s right to representation," Nasrallah added. "All claims that Hezbollah has plans to install an Iranian or Shia government is distortion, misleading and outright false."
Hariri has been locked in a months-long standoff with Hezbollah over a UN probe into the 2005 assassination of his father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
Mikati, who hails from the mainly Sunni northern city of Tripoli and has maintained good relations with Syria, served as premier for three months in 2005 after the pro-Syrian government collapsed in the wake of Hariri’s murder.
The Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to probe Hariri’s murder, last week submitted an indictment which Hezbollah says will implicate party members.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s acting Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday ruled out joining a government led by a Hezbollah-appointed candidate, his office said, as consultations on nominating a new premier were underway.
"The (Hariri-led) Future Movement announces its refusal to participate in a government headed by a candidate named by the opposition," the statement said, referring to Shia insurgent group Hezbollah and its allies.
But Hariri’s Future Movement said there was no such thing as a "consensual candidate."
"There is a candidate named Saad Hariri, and then there is another candidate nominated by the opposition," the statement said. "Those are the only two choices."
In an apparent bid to reach out to Hariri, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday said his party and its allies had no intention of excluding their political rivals from the new cabinet.
"If our candidate is successful, we will ask him to form a government of national partnership in which all parties will participate," he said.
But Hariri, who is running for a second term in office against Hezbollah’s candidate, shot down any chances of forming a unity government.
"What came before the parliamentary consultations are completely different from what will come afterwards," read the statement.
