Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has hoped that his national unity government would be formed by the end of the year.
“I think we are in the last 100 meters of forming the government,” Hariri said Friday during a Q&A session at the Chatham House think tank in London.
“We are getting there, it’s not a regional issue, it’s an internal issue, it’s because the equation changed a little bit in parliament and some people want more. I believe that most of the obstacles were solved, there is still one obstacle and I am sure that we will be able to resolve it,” he said in response to a question.
Hariri has refused to grant six Hezbollah-backed independent Sunni MPs a representative in the cabinet for not making up a coherent political bloc.
He stressed that “Lebanon cannot afford to continue without a government that can protect it from regional turmoil and economic downfall.”
The PM-designate reiterated the importance of overcoming political differences among Lebanon’s different factions.
“Hezbollah is not going to change my mind on Iran and I am not going to change its mind on Saudi Arabia,” stressed Hariri. “So we decided to put our regional differences aside.”
Hariri told the audience that Riyadh will back Lebanon through several agreements that are set to be announced once the new cabinet is formed.
“You will see Saudi Arabia taking some serious steps towards Lebanon and helping economically.”
At the CEDRE conference that was held in Paris last April, Saudi Arabia committed one billion dollars, he said.
“Our strategy is to invest in infrastructure, prepare Lebanon to be a platform so that big companies … would invest in Lebanon or make Lebanon a hub for reconstruction in Syria, in Iraq and even in Libya,” Hariri stated.
He reiterated the importance of sticking to Lebanon’s dissociation policy, saying the new government will continue to abide by it.
