Lebanon’s hopes for reform collapse as PM-designate Adib resigns

Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib has resigned after spending more than a month trying to form a government

Credit: MOHAMED AZAKIR /REUTERS

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate, Mustapha Adib, resigned on Saturday after almost a month of trying to form a government that would reduce the influence of the main political blocs that have brought the crisis-hit country to the edge of collapse after 30 years of corruption. 

The resignation of Mr Adib, who was chosen on August 31 to form a new cabinet after the last government quit following the Beirut explosions, serves a blow to France’s rescue plan of the country. 

The negotiations to form a non-partisan cabinet of experts instead of party loyalists were brought to a deadlock over who would nominate names for key ministries and in particular the finance ministry. 

As Mr Adib pushed for control of the key ministries to be rotated among the country’s main sects — namely, Sunnis, Shias and Maronites — the Shi’ite duo Hizbollah and its ally the Amal Movement held firm on their grasp of the finance ministry. 

Last month the US slapped sanctions on one of the top aides of Nabih Berri, the head of the Amal movement who has named the finance minister for many years, as well as cabinet ministers and close allies of Hezbollah. Their grip on the ministry tightened, bringing Lebanon’s sectarian politics back into deadlock. 

Mr Adib told reporters that he was stepping down because forming a non-partisan government to unlock desperately needed foreign aid is "bound to fail". 

Anti-government protesters block a road with waste containers during a protest to demand a change of the sectarian system and finding solutions to the daily-living and economic crisis

Credit: WAEL HAMZEH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock /Shutterstock

“When will you finally stop playing your usual games, listen to the cries and needs of the people, prioritize the future of Lebanon?”, the United Nations’ Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, tweeted in reference to the country’s politicians. 

Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has seen the local currency lose over 80 per cent of its value this year and over half the country plunged into poverty, continues unabated with the political elite refusing to make the basic reforms to unlock foreign aid. 

The resignation of Mr Adib comes just days after President Michel Aoun claimed that Lebanon was “headed to hell” if it didn’t form a government quickly. 

The politicians had already missed France’s 15-day deadline to form a new government in the middle of September, the first step in France’s roadmap to stopping the former French protectorate from becoming a failed state. 

An official in Mr Macron’s office, commenting on Adib’s resignation, told the Associated Press it was “a collective betrayal” by Lebanon’s political parties.