March 14: No substitute for Hariri to head the new government

March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soueid said on Wednesday evening :” Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri did not come as a compromise prime minister, he came as a prime minister because of of the will of the people who elected him in the last parliamentary elections.”

Soueid’s comment was in response to calls by March 8 for a new government

Lebanon’s government is dissolved when more than one third of its 30 cabinet members resign, and on Wednesday all 10 ministers belonging to the Iranian backed Hezbollah-led opposition announced their resignations. Hours later, they were joined by an eleventh minister representing Lebanese president Michel Suleiman, forcing the collapse of PM Saad Hariri’s government.

Soueid Stressed that the “resignation of the Ministers of March 8 is a deliberate escalation against the International Tribunal.”

He Said, what happened is a deliberate attempt to impose conditions from within and outside the institutions adding that “the resignation means the refusal of the other team to live with another team in a single government.”

Former Lebanese premier and current Future Movement parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora, told Al Arabiya TV on Wednesday evening : Based on all available data there is no substitute for Saad Hariri to head the new government.

Similarly MP Antoine Zahra who represents the Lebanese Forces in the parliament told told Al Arabiya TV on Wednesday evening: There is no substitute for for Hariri to head the new government , since he was elected with an overwhelming majority and naming any candidate that does not have a mandate by from voters will create a major problem.

The cabinet’s collapse is over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) probing the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s  former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Hezbollah members will be soon indicted by STL.

The ministers of Hezbollah and its allies resigned as Hariri was meeting with US president Barack Obama at the White House. Following the meeting on Wednesday , Hariri left Washington , DC to Paris to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.