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Lebanon's Hariri set to become prime minister
Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:06am EDT
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By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A majority of Lebanon's parliament will nominate U.S.-backed Saad al-Hariri for the post of prime minister, paving the way for his appointment later this week, political sources said on Friday.
President Michel Suleiman has begun consultations with parliamentarians over the appointment and will designate a candidate after the talks conclude on Saturday.
When local media began reporting that Hariri was likely to become prime minister investors reacted positively. The Beirut stock index rose 2.4 percent, with real estate company Solidere leading the rally.
Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system reserves the premiership for a Sunni Muslim.
The sources said Hariri, a Sunni, would be nominated by his coalition's 71 MPs in the 128-seat assembly as well as the 13 parliamentarians of Hezbollah Shi'ite ally, Amal Movement which is led by Nabih Berri who was re-elected as parliament speaker on Thursday.
It was not clear if Hezbollah's 12 deputies would vote for Hariri. Some Christian blocs of the opposition were expected not to vote for him.
Hariri, who led a U.S.-backed coalition to victory over Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies in this month's election, met Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah overnight.
A joint statement said the men, who had only met once before in three years, had held talks and discussed the outcome of the election and the possible shape of the new government.
"They also agreed on continuing discussions in the current positive calm atmosphere and stressed the logic of dialogue, cooperation and openness," it said.
Hezbollah had called for the formation of a national unity government with veto power for the minority alliance after the parliamentary election, though the group has not repeated the demand since the vote. Hariri rejects such a veto.
While his majority coalition could nominate him and effectively appoint him unilaterally to the post, Hariri had been keen on getting the backing of his powerful rivals to ensure a smooth launch of his administration.
Immediately after the election he called for the shelving of the contentious issue of disarming Hezbollah. The group, labeled as terrorist by the United States, has battled Israeli forces since the early 1980s.
It fought a 34-day battle against Israel in 2006 in which 1,200 people died in Lebanon and some 160 in Israel.
Saudi Arabia and western countries including the U.S. have been major supporters of Hariri, whose father Rafik was assassinated in 2005, and his allies in their power struggle with rivals backed by Syria and Iran.
The meeting between Hariri and Nasrallah was also aimed at defusing Sunni-Shi'ite tensions that last year threatened to boil over into a civil war when Hezbollah fighters routed Hariri and his allies' supporters in Beirut and mountains to the east. Continued...
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