Beirut: Billionaire businessman Najeeb Mikati was poised on Monday to be become Lebanon's next prime minister after winning the backing of the powerful Hezbollah, in a move denounced by outgoing premier Sa’ad Hariri.
"It's Mikati for sure," influential Druze leader Walid Junblatt, who last week became allied with Hezbollah, told AFP as consultations on appointing a new premier got underway at the presidential palace.
Junblatt said the Shiite party backed by Syria and Iran had secured a majority number of votes in the 128-member parliament to impose Mikati as its candidate to head the next government.
The 55-year-old Mikati, who served briefly as premier in 2005 and is close to Syria, said after meeting with President Michel Sulaiman that should he be appointed he would act as a consensual candidate representing all parties.
"I extend my hand to everyone," he told reporters. "If I am appointed, my actions will speak for themselves."
Hezbollah on January 12 brought down Hariri's Saudi- and Western-backed government after a long-running dispute over a UN-backed tribunal probing the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri, Sa’ad's father.
The party had been pressing Hariri to disavow the tribunal, which it believes will implicate Hezbollah members.
Hariri, who is standing for another term, on Monday ruled out joining a government headed by a candidate appointed by Hezbollah, saying there was no such thing as a consensual candidate.
"There is a candidate named Sa’ad Hariri, and then there is another candidate nominated by the opposition," he said in a statement. "Those are the only two choices."
Mikati, who hails from the mainly Sunni northern city of Tripoli, was elected to parliament in 2009 as an ally of Hariri. He is a major shareholder in South Africa's telecom MTN Group, owns the French fashion line Faconnable and has major real estate investments.
Forbes magazine in 2010 estimated his net worth at $2.5 billion, making him one of Lebanon's richest men.
The appointment of a Hezbollah-backed premier has sparked fears within the international community, notably Israel, of Iran gaining further influence in Lebanon and has prompted comparisons with Gaza, ruled by the Islamist group Hamas.
But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah dismissed such accusations on Sunday saying that his coalition would seek to include Hariri's camp in a government headed by their candidate.
"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 Shiite government is distortion, misleading and outright false."
According to Lebanon power-sharing system, the country's president must be a Maronite Christian, the speaker of parliament a Shiite and the prime minister a Sunni.
The political crisis in Lebanon has sparked fears of sectarian violence similar to that which brought the country close to another civil war in May 2008.
