WORLD Lebanese president asks ex-PM Hariri to form new government BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's newly elected president, Michel Aoun, on Thursday asked former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to form a new government, after the ex-premier secured an overwhelming majority in parliament.

(1 of 1) A giant picture of the newly-elected Lebanese President Michel Aoun is seen behind the Statue of Martyrs created by Italian artist Marino Mazzacurati, during a rally at Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 31, 2016. Lebanon's parliament on Monday elected Michel Aoun, an 81-year-old former army commander and strong ally of the militant group Hezbollah, as the country's president, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the top post and a political crisis that brought state institutions perilously close to collapse. Arabic on the picture reads "Republic".

November 03, 2016

Aoun's office made the announcement after two days of consultations with lawmakers over their choice of prime minister. The statement didn't say how many lawmakers supported Hariri for the post. A Christian leader and strong ally of the Shiite Hezbollah group, Aoun was elected by parliament as president on Monday, ending a 29-month presidential vacuum in Lebanon. His election was made possible after Hariri endorsed him for president, based on an understanding that Aoun would then appoint him as prime minister.

According to Lebanon's sectarian-based power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Muslim Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim. The Aoun-Hariri deal is an unlikely partnership between rivals: Aoun, a longtime Syrian foe now allied with pro-Syrian forces, and Hariri, a vocal opponent of President Bashar Assad and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Hariri is the son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in a massive seaside bombing in 2005 in Beirut. Several Hezbollah members are being tried in absentia for the killing by a Netherlands-based U.N.-backed tribunal.

Hariri, 46, was a political novice thrown into politics when he took over his father's political mantle after the senior Hariri was killed. He headed a 14-month national unity government from late 2009 until early 2011, which collapsed after Hezbollah and its allies resigned from the Cabinet in a dispute over upcoming indictments in Rafik Hariri's assassination.