ICJ chief Nawaf Salam named Lebanon’s new PM

Nawaf Salam was named as Lebanon’s next Prime Minister after receiving the support of 84 MPs when they held binding consultations with newly elected President Joseph Aoun on Monday.

Antoine Choucair, the director General of the Presidency, announced the result, saying Salam was abroad and would arrive in Beirut Tuesday.

Salam is a president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

According to Lebanon’s constitution, the president chooses the prime minister and is bound to select the candidate with the most support during consultations with the 128 MPs. This means the support of 65 MPs is enough to be designated as prime minister, a threshold Salam passed on Monday afternoon.

As the talks began on Monday at the presidential palace in Baabda, Salam was regarded as the front-runner along with ongoing prime minister Najib Mikati. But the race wasn’t close. Salam received the support of 84 MPs to Mikati’s nine. Some 35 abstained, including Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement, led by parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri.