New Lebanon PM forms government
From Brent Sadler
CNN Beirut Bureau Chief
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said Tuesday he had formed a new government.
The announcement came less than a week after Omar Karami turned in his resignation as prime minister when he failed to form a new government.
Mikati, a pro-Syrian lawmaker, spoke shortly after meeting pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the presidential palace, The Associated Press said.
Details on Mikati's government were expected later Tuesday. Mikati is a former government minister named to the post by Lahoud on Friday.
Mikati has garnered the support of the anti-Syrian Lebanese opposition by vowing to fire the nation's security chiefs in the wake of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination.
Lebanon has been in a political crisis since Hariri was killed in a car bombing in February, prompting large-scale demonstrations calling for Syria to leave the country.
Hariri was a key mover in getting a U.N. resolution to call on Syria to remove its troops and intelligence assets from Lebanon. Resolution 1559, passed last year, also calls on Lebanon to disband guerrilla groups.
Now Hariri's death is at the center of an international investigation authorized by the U.N. Security Council.
A U.N. report released last month said the government of Syria "interfered" with governance in Lebanon in a heavy-handed way that was "the primary reason for the political polarization that ensued" before Hariri's death.
"It is obvious that this atmosphere provided the backdrop for the assassination of Mr. Hariri," the report said.
The Lebanese opposition has gone further, saying his assassination was an act of political retribution by Syria.
Syria's government has said it had nothing to gain and everything to lose in Hariri's death.
Yet faced with increasing international pressure, the country has agreed to withdraw its forces from Lebanon by April 30, ahead of parliamentary elections in May.
Syria began pulling its 14,000 troops to the Bekaa Valley near the border March 8.
Syria has had a presence in Lebanon since the end of its 15-year civil war, which mostly pitted Lebanon's ruling conservative Christians against leftist Muslims, with Syria, Israel and Western international forces -- including U.S. Marines -- occasionally taking part.
The treaty that ended the fighting revised the constitution to give the Muslim majority a greater role. The presidency, chosen by parliament, goes to a Christian. The prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim.
Mikati served as minister of Public Works and Transport, mostly during Hariri's tenure.
