The following pictures show Siniora with each former prime minister.

He first visited former minister Amin al-Hafez as part of traditional visits to former prime ministers. Hafez served as PM for nearly 2 months, 35 years ago from 25 April - 21 June 1973. No comments were made to reporters after their meeting
*
*
*

Siniora's second stop was meeting with former Prime minister Rashid Solh who served as a PM from 31 October 1974 - 24 May 1975 and from 13 May - 31 October 1992. Again no comments were made to reporters after their meeting
*
*
*

Siniora's third stop was meeting with former Prime minister Salim el Hoss. After meeting with Siniora , Hoss called on the various leaders to "cooperate fully" with President Suleiman to make his era a success. Hoss served from 2 June 1987 - 24 December 1990 and from 2 December 1998 - 23 October 2000
*
*
*

Siniora's fourth stop was meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader General Michel Aoun at his mansion in Rabiyeh. Aoun described the meeting later as positive . Aoun dismissed Hoss and appointed himself as the prime minister from 22 September 1988 until 13 October 1990
*
*
*

Siniora's fifth stop was meeting with former Prime Minister Omar Karami. Following the meeting Karami told reporters that the prime minister-designate is stretching his hand to all sides so that the forthcoming era would be better than the previous one. Karami served from 24 December 1990 - 13 May 1992 and from 21 October 2004 - 15 April 2005

Siniora's sixth stop will be meeting with former Prime Minister Najib Mikati . Mikati served from 15 April 2005 - 30 June 2005 to facilitate the parliamentary elections following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri and the forced resignation of Omar Karami by the Cedar Revolution. Mikati is in Tripoli today and this is perhaps why Siniora did not meet him yet

Siniora is expected to face many challenges during the process of cabinet formation, according to local political analysts . His toughest challenges will start surfacing after he starts his consultations with the members of the parliament and bloc leaders . According to Parliament Secretariat Siniora will start consultations at the parliament 1:30pm Friday and until Saturday

Following his appointment by the president , Siniora called on all Lebanese to "heal the wounds" of the past and he pledged to try and form a government for all of Lebanon.

"I extend my hand for cooperation and solidarity so that our country can achieve the breakthroughs it deserves," he said at the Baabda Republican Palace.

He also thanked lawmakers who nominated him and MPs who did not nominate him for taking part in the constitutional process and said he looked forward to ushering the nation into a new era of constitutional rule.

Under the Doha accord , which ended the Lebanese crisis, the parliamentary majority gets 16 ministers, while the agreement allotted the opposition 11 seats and three seats are to be distributed by the president.

The interior ministry will be probably headed by a retired former General who is a relative of president and will come out of the president's share of ministers

If this is the case, then the foreign, defense, finance and justice ministries will be shared by the majority and opposition.

A lot of horse trading is awaiting Siniora at the parliament tomorrow

Update : 17:45 Siniora was able to meet with former Prime Minister Najib Mikati at around 7:00 PM , Beirut time

Mikati told reporters after meeting with Siniora: This was more than a traditional courtesy visit . During our meeting which we discussed current topics including the Doha agreement and and its contents contained and the issues that must be addressed by the new government and specially the security issue and I gave Siniora a book by John Bolton. The former controversial US ambassador to the UN is famous for his book: "Surrender Is Not an Option"

Share this Article:           
Feedback? We want to hear your thoughts!