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Lebanese Caretaker PM Will Meet Syria's Sharaa in Damascus on Saturday

FILED - 25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Hannes P Albert/dpa
FILED - 25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Hannes P Albert/dpa
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Lebanese Caretaker PM Will Meet Syria's Sharaa in Damascus on Saturday

FILED - 25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Hannes P Albert/dpa
FILED - 25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Hannes P Albert/dpa

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati will meet Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Saturday, a Lebanese source told Reuters on Friday.
Mikati had received an invitation from Sharaa over the phone last week to visit Syria.

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Lebanese President to Consult on New Prime Minister from Monday

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun smiles as he walks into a meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on January 10, 2025. (AFP)
Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun smiles as he walks into a meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on January 10, 2025. (AFP)
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Lebanese President to Consult on New Prime Minister from Monday

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun smiles as he walks into a meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on January 10, 2025. (AFP)
Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun smiles as he walks into a meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on January 10, 2025. (AFP)

Newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will hold consultations with members of parliament from Jan. 13 to nominate a prime minister, the presidency said on Friday.

Once named, the new prime minister must form a government, a process that often takes many months. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is widely seen as a frontrunner, but opposition parliamentarian Fouad Makhzoumi may have the backing of a number of lawmakers, political sources said.

The post is reserved for a Sunni figure in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, which also reserves the presidency for a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament post for a Shiite.

Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Aoun as president on Thursday, filling a post that has been vacant since October 2022 with a general who has US support and showing the weakened sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.

In his first remarks as president on Thursday, Aoun said that he would work to assert the state's right to hold the monopoly on arms.

Mikati said on Friday that the state would begin disarming in southern Lebanon, to assert its presence across the country.

Lebanon and Israel agreed in November to a 60-day ceasefire that stipulates that only "official military and security forces" in Lebanon are authorized to carry arms.

The proposal refers to both sides' commitment to fully implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, including provisions that refer to the "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon".