A truce meeting between Aoun and Hariri after a day that witnessed fierce debate.



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On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri announced an agreement with the country’s President Michel Aoun to hold a bilateral meeting next Monday, to discuss the possibility of reaching a new government as soon as possible.

Hariri said, at a press conference after his meeting with Aoun at the Presidential Palace, east of Beirut, that he had agreed with the country’s president to meet again next Monday.

He added: “There will be answers about the possibility that we get to the government as soon as possible,” without further details.

Hariri indicated that his meeting today with President Aoun came to “ease the confrontation that arose yesterday, and to calm things down.”

He explained that he had listened to the comments of the country’s president and spoke with him about his aspirations to form a government of specialists that includes 18 ministers, and that the country would emerge from its current economic crisis.

He continued: “The main objective of any government is to stop the (economic) collapse.”

He continued: “I’ll be frank. Now there is an opportunity that must be seized,” without further details.

Hariri emphasized that “the main objective of any government is to start by stopping the collapse through the International Monetary Fund and restoring the confidence of the international community in the country.”

And on Wednesday, Aoun Hariri chose between forming his government immediately or allowing others to take over the task that has been entrusted to him since October 22.

Later, Hariri responded to Aoun, in a statement, that he had chosen between approving the ministerial formation or calling early presidential elections.

Two months after his appointment, Hariri announced that he had presented the country’s president with “a cabinet made up of 18 non-partisan specialist ministers.”

However, Aoun announced at the time his objection to what he called “Hariri’s uniqueness in appointing ministers, especially Christians, without agreeing with the presidency.”

For more than a year, Lebanon has experienced the worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990, exacerbated by the repercussions of the Corona pandemic and a catastrophic explosion in the port of the capital, Beirut, on August 4.

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