UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations called on Tuesday for Lebanon to move forward on forming a new government, nearly three months after the fall of Saad Hariri's Western-backed administration.
"Throughout the region, enormous shifts and upheavals are underway, and at the same time Lebanon remains high on the agenda at the Security Council," UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams told reporters.
"We look forward for an early formation of a government which will help address the priorities of the Lebanese people, both in terms of political and security stability, but also in terms of social and economic requirements." Williams, who had just addressed the 15-member council on the issue, said he has received reassurances from prime minister designate Najib Mikati, a billionaire businessman, that the new government would "respect his engagements." The militant group and party Hezbollah, which toppled Hariri's government in January after he refused to cut ties with a UN tribunal investigating his father Rafiq Hariri's 2005 murder, has backed Mikati as future prime minister. Williams stressed that the new government should enforce its territorial integrity, expressing regret at how Israeli aircraft and drones were violating Lebanese airspace on a nearly daily basis. The unrest roiling across North Africa and the Middle East could impact Lebanon "in the long run rather positively," with some negative effects initially, he added. The envoy also deplored the growing violence in neighbouring Syria, plunged in unprecedented dissent for the past two weeks that activists say has left over 130 people dead in clashes with security forces. Officials have put the death toll at around 30.
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