The top judge at the International Court of Justice Nawaf Salam has been designated Lebanon\u2019s next prime minister in a surprising turnaround for the crisis-ridden country. <\/p>\n
On Monday, the office of newly minted President Joseph Aoun asked Salam to form a government, after the judge was endorsed by a large majority of lawmakers during consultations with Aoun. <\/p>\n
Aoun\u2019s election and Salam\u2019s designation mark the end of a more than two-year long stalemate with a presidential vacuum and a cabinet operating in a day-to-day caretaker capacity. <\/p>\n
The consultations over the country\u2019s next prime minister were triggered by Aoun\u2019s election in parliament on Thursday, following a robust push from Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n
Salam is widely viewed as a reformist. He is a Sunni Muslim \u2013 the only sect allowed the position of prime minister \u2013 and was a candidate for the premiership twice before in recent years. <\/p>\n
The judge rose to international prominence last year after he was elected head of the ICJ, presiding over South Africa\u2019s case accusing Israel of genocide and other tribunals. <\/p>\n
Some media outlets likened Salam\u2019s designation to a \u201ctsunami.\u201d He put himself forward as a candidate on Sunday morning, according to local media reports. Prior to that, incumbent caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati was widely viewed as the most likely contender for the post. <\/p>\n
Salam\u2019s designation is a blow to Hezbollah and its allies Amal, known as the Shia duo, who are believed to have supported Mikati. Speaking to reporters, Hezbollah parliamentary bloc leader Mohammad Raad said the move to designate Salam sowed \u201cdivision\u201d in the country, and said he hoped the cabinet would respect the country\u2019s confessional power-sharing \u201cpact.\u201d <\/p>\n
Unofficially, Lebanon\u2019s major sects \u2013 Muslims from Sunni and Shia sects as well as Christians \u2013 must all be represented in cabinet. <\/p>\n
No Shia lawmakers endorsed the prime minister designate, putting Nawaf on a potential collision course as he tries to form a government in the next few weeks. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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The top judge at the International Court of Justice Nawaf Salam has been designated Lebanon\u2019s next prime minister in a surprising turnaround for the crisis-ridden country. On Monday, the office of newly minted President Joseph Aoun asked Salam to form a government, after the judge was endorsed by a large majority of lawmakers during consultations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}