28 July 2021; MEMO: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati today said that he hoped to form a government in the "near future", Reuters reports.
Mikati, a businessman, is the third person to be nominated since Hassan Diab's government resigned after an explosion in Beirut's port area on Aug. 4 last year that killed more than 200 people and flattened large areas of the city. He spoke to reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun.
Diab's government has stayed on in a caretaker capacity since then, but Lebanon's currency has collapsed, jobs have vanished and banks have frozen accounts in the country's worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
Mikati has held consultations with political parties that he said "unanimously" agreed on the need to put together a government quickly to rescue the crisis-hit country.
