Lebanon Steps in Hopefully to Resolve Deadlock

A new move in Lebanon, hopefully would break a deadlock that extended for more than two months.

Political elite has named an ex-education minister Hassan Diab as its next prime minister, with initial support of the Iran-backed Hizbollah paramilitary group. 

Diab, currently vice-president of country’s top university, will be in charge of building a government to tackle Lebanon’s worst economic turmoil for decades, while working at the same time to satisfying the demands for systemic change from its largest protest movement in 14 years. 

Prime Minister Saad Hariri stepped down in late October, and, since then, resisted calls for forming new government citing a condition that the new cabinet should be made of technocrats and not sectarian politicians.

Demonstrations have denounced the entire political elite as corrupt and incompetent, and called for fresh leadership with the technical ability to steer Lebanon through its economic slump. 

Diab, who studied engineering in the UK and was education minister from 2011 to 2014, was selected upon securing the majority of the 128-seat parliament’s votes. The country’s sectarian governance system dictates that the position of prime minister must be filled by a Sunni Muslim. 

But many Sunni MPs abstained from voting or backed other candidates. Mr Diab did not receive support from Sunni ex-prime minister Hariri’s Future Movement, or from the Lebanese Forces, a large Christian bloc. 

Rather, PM designate Diab drew support mostly from Hizbollah, a Shia organisation designated as a terrorist organisation by Washington, as well as from its allies in parliament, including the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a Maronite Christian party. 

Lebanon is one of the world’s most-heavily indebted countries for the size of its economy. Rating agencies have repeatedly downgraded Lebanon’s sovereign bonds further into junk territory this year, as concerns it may default on the $88bn pile have risen. 

US and International allies are reluctant to help any government that includes Iran-funded Hizbollah. Mr Diab is currently vice-president of the American University of Beirut and claims in his electronic curriculum vitae that he has “been a seeker of truth” and “blessed with an innate sense of wisdom” since his early years. He studied at Leeds Metropolitan and the University of Surrey, before getting a PhD in computer engineering at the University of Bath in 1985, according to his resume.