Lebanon: Aoun, Hariri Exchange 'War of Words' Over Cabinet Deadlock
Published December 15th, 2020 - 07:36 GMT
A Lebanese man wearing a Santa Claus outfit, entertains children at a Christmas market set up on Martyr's square, the epicentre of anti-government protests, in the capital Beirut's downtown district, on December 13, 2020. ANWAR AMRO / AFP
President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Monday engaged in a “war of words,” reflecting tensions between them and a widening gap over the makeup of a new government badly needed to enact reforms and rescue Lebanon’s crumbling economy.
The tensions between Aoun and Hariri, less than a week after the premier-designate submitted a draft Cabinet lineup to the president, and a raging juidicial row sparked by a prosecutor’s charges filed against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers for negligence in the Beirut Port explosion, have dashed hopes for the formation of a new government ahead of a new visit to Lebanon by French President Emmanuel Macron next week.