Hezbollah calls for the formation of a new Lebanese government

While the process of forming a government in Lebanon has been stalled for six months, Hezbollah's parliamentary group on Thursday called for "forming a government without delay". The stalemate has been caused by the confrontation between Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun. 

The Shiite party group is also calling for the identity of the killers of intellectual, author, filmmaker and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim, who was found dead on 4 February in southern Lebanon, to be revealed. The group also criticises the media smear campaign they believe they have suffered following Slim's assassination.

At the end of its weekly meeting, the Fidelity to Resistance group said that "today, the country urgently needs the concerted efforts of all constitutional institutions to get out of its successive financial, economic, health and administrative crises in view of the achievements of the government in managing the present". It added that "however, the current situation requires the formation of a new government without delay, endowed with full constitutional powers and capable of defending the interests of the Lebanese at home and abroad," the parliamentary formation continued.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned on 10 August in the aftermath of the double deadly explosion in the port of Beirut and Lebanon has been without a government since then. 

Michel Aoun, the president of the republic, and Saad Hariri, the prime minister-designate, failed to agree on a cabinet of non-partisan experts in the spirit of the "French initiative" launched during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron on 1 September last year. 

Also, Aoun and Hariri have not met since 23 December. Saad Hariri was received by President Macron for dinner on Wednesday at the Elysée Palace. He discussed with the Lebanese representative an attempt to unblock the process.

Hezbollah's pro-Iranian parliamentary group, in the context of the assassination of Lokman Slim, stated that Hezbollah's condemnation of the scholar's murder "reflects the position of the party, which today renews its demand that the judicial services and the competent security apparatuses work to uncover the perpetrators of the crime". "It must be condemned, because it aims to create chaos and sedition and provides a free service to the Israeli enemy and its American boss," the Shi'ite group said.

Critics of the Shi'ite party blame the assassination on Hezbollah, which has repeatedly threatened Slim for his political pronouncements. Meanwhile, some people close to Hezbollah accuse Israel of the assassination.