Beirut: «Al-Khaleej», agencies
Yesterday, Tuesday, news reports said that the Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon this week and agreed to offer “free fuel” from Iran, according to what an official close to Mikati said, at a time when talk progressed about the presidential elections in Lebanon. At the expense of the government formation, which seems to not happen throughout the remainder of President Michel Aoun’s term, which ends on October 31, unless a miracle occurs.
According to “The Cradle”, Mikati provided Ambassador Mojtaba Amani with specifications of the fuel that Lebanon needs to operate stagnant power stations, because fuel from Iran is not compatible with the Lebanese network, and this means that the fuel must be exchanged with a third country, either by Iran or Lebanon, and the source added that Beirut is now waiting for Tehran to invite an official meeting to start the process. However, there are concerns that Mikati accepted the show as a way to save face in front of Lebanese citizens, as his decision likely upset the US Embassy in Beirut. The US ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, and the US mediator for the demarcation of the maritime border, Amos Hochstein, had earlier warned Energy Minister Walid Fayyad against accepting the Iranian fuel offer.
On the other hand, it seems that the government formation has become unlikely due to the persistent dispute between Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, which seems to not stop, which indicates that the new government will not see the light before the end of Aoun’s reign on October 31, and attention is currently focused on the presidential election. Who is also surrounded by fears of not getting what would lead the country into a presidential and governmental vacuum and complete paralysis, even though the current caretaker government inherits the powers of the president, but its tasks are limited and it hardly performs business. All the attempts that took place to arrange a third meeting between Aoun and Mikati failed, while the media bickering escalated between them, and the “Free Patriotic Movement” entered the line, which attacked Mikati and held him responsible for the disruption, which worsened the relationship between the two presidents.