Leading political figure Saad Hariri was named as Lebanon's new prime minister on Thursday (November 3rd) and given a mandate to form the country's next government, the office of newly elected President Michel Aoun announced.
The nomination comes days after Aoun was elected, with Hariri's surprise support, ending a vacuum of more than two years , AFP reported.
Hariri was endorsed by 110 members of the 127-seat parliament, with only the Hizbullah party, the Syrian Social National Party and the Lebanese Baath party – all supporters of the Syrian regime – declining to back him as prime minister.
Hariri returns to the post of prime minister five years after his last cabinet collapsed when Hizbullah and its allies pulled their ministers from a unity government that had taken months to form.
