Beirut: Lebanese President Michel Sulaiman is seeking all-party talks to assess his chances of forming a new government after calls for the premier to quit over a deadly bombing, his office said on Wednesday.
Lebanon has been in crisis since Friday, when a car bomb blamed on Syria killed police intelligence chief General Wissam Al Hassan in Beirut.
Al Hassan had been prominent for investigating political killings in Lebanon allegedly linked to neighbouring Syria.
Former premier and opposition chief Sa’ad Hariri and other political figures have demanded that Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati step down over the bombing.
However, Mikati said on Saturday he had accepted Sulaiman’s request that he stay on for the time being in the “national interest.”
Mikati, who took office in June 2011 after five months of political wrangling, has made no public statement about his future since then.
Avoiding political vacuum
The United States and the European Union, both anxious to ward off any further Syrian interference in Lebanon, have separately urged the Lebanese government to avoid creating a political vacuum.
A high-ranking official in the president’s office told AFP on Wednesday that Sulaiman “has begun consultations with the leading figures of the country, in the context of the national dialogue, to discuss the possibility of forming a new government.”
“If that dialogue were to result in agreement on the form of a new government that can pull Lebanon out of its impasse, then Mikati could present his resignation and the process of forming the government could begin,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.
However, Hariri’s March 14 coalition insists that Mikati resign before it will join any national dialogue.
