Hezbollah appointed Lebanese businessman Najib Mikati as prime minister-designate after gaining the approval of parliament on Monday.
“I don’t have a magic wand, and I can’t work miracles,” said Mikati after his nomination, reported Reuters. He said he at least had “the necessary international guarantees” to move forward.
Mikati now must try to form a government amid the country’s rapidly descending economic and political crisis.
The 65-year-old has been prime minister twice: from April 2005 to July 2005, he served in a caretaker government, and he was again prime minister from 2011 to 2014. He is the third person to be nominated since the government resigned following the massive Beirut explosions last August that killed more than 200 people and left the city in ruins.
Prices in the country have been skyrocketing and salaries dropping, forcing more than half the population into poverty. Hezbollah is trying to appear to be solving the crisis even though it is part of the problem.
