Lebanon’s besieged government is poised to fall after more than a third of ministers quit their posts, forcing the prime minister, Hassan Diab, to resign.
Diab, who has been prime minister for nine months, is due to notify the president, Michel Aoun, who is expected to accept his resignation. Diab will address the nation at 7.30pm local time.
However, the move is unlikely to lead to a clean sweep of the embattled government, with current ministers – including those who have resigned – set to assume a caretaker role and form the backbone of a new administration.
Instead a push is under way for more than a third of sitting MPs to quit parliament, which would force new parliamentary elections and could lead to an injection of new members less tainted by corruption and nepotism.
Lebanon’s leadership had been teetering for the past week since an enormous explosion wiped out Beirut’s port and damaged nearby areas, killing at least 164 people and wounding up to 6,000 more.
Decades of incompetence and graft had underpinned a decision to keep a stockpile of close to 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the port and store it with combustible substances.
The explosion has cast a spotlight on weak governance in the Mediterranean state, which was already reeling from an economic implosion that threatened the livelihoods of millions of people.
More details soon …
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/10/lebanese-pm-to-resign-after-more-than-a-third-of-cabinet-quits
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