Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Wednesday to form a new cabinet immediately or else make way for someone who can.
Aoun and Hariri have been at loggerheads over government formation for almost five months, leaving the country rudderless as it sinks deeper into financial collapse.
Lebanon is in the throes of a deep economic crisis that is posing the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-1990 civil war.
"If Prime Minister-designate Hariri finds himself unable to form a government..., he should make way for those who are," Aoun said in a televised speech after inviting him to the Baabda palace for immediate talks on the matter.
A new government could implement urgently-needed reforms and unlock international aid.
The government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned on the back of the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion that destroyed swathes of the capital and left 200 dead.
Diab's cabinet has stayed on in a caretaker capacity until a successor is formed but fractious politicians have been unable to agree a government since Hariri's nomination in October.
"My call is determined and truthful to the prime minister-designate to choose immediately one of the two choices, as silence is not an option after today," Aoun said.
Erupting in 2019, the financial crisis has wiped out jobs, locked people out of their bank deposits, slashed almost 90% of the value of the Lebanese currency and raised the risk of widespread hunger.
The pace of unravelling has escalated in the past two weeks with the Lebanese pound losing a third of its value, shops closing down and protesters blocking roadways.
New pressure on politicians
Meanwhile, a French diplomat said on Wednesday that France and its international partners will seek to increase pressure on Lebanon’s politicians in the coming months, although he did not envisage sanctions against individuals in the immediate term.
Paris has spearheaded international efforts to rescue the former French protectorate from collapse, but has failed so far to persuade squabbling politicians to adopt a reform roadmap and form a new government.
“On a political level, what’s called for is a very strong increase in pressure on the Lebanese actors,” the diplomat, who asked not to be identified, told reporters.
“We will act with our European partners and Americans to identify all the pressure levers that we can put in place so that those who believe they have a greater advantage in blocking the system and forming a government reconsider their calculations.”
When asked whether that meant possible sanctions on Lebanese officials, the diplomat said the short-term objective was to raise “political pressure.”
“It wasn’t a priority in August/September, but after six or seven months the question is legitimate,” he said, adding nothing concrete was being discussed for now.
Coordination with the United States on the issue was more fluid, he said, because the new administration could see the merits of French efforts while the Trump administration had seen Lebanon through the prism of its maximum pressure campaign targeting Iran.
“What we can see after seven months is that there is an extraordinary resistance, (acceptance of the) status quo and sharing the cake of the Lebanese system, but there isn’t much left of the cake to share,” the diplomat said.
“Our role is to try and put them (Lebanese politicians) under sufficient pressure so they understand they need to move.”
Another Western diplomat said Paris believed sanctions should be a last resort and it was not yet time for that.
