By Jamie Prentis | Nada Homsi  -- thenationalnews.com -- A Lebanese parliamentary session scheduled for Thursday will be a formality following the departure of President Michel Aoun on Monday night, as senior leaders hold background negotiations to find his successor and end a widening leadership vacuum. Before his departure from the Baabda presidential palace on Sunday, Mr Aoun signed a decree recognising the resignation of the current Cabinet. He also sent a letter to parliament notifying them of the government’s resignation. In the letter, Mr Aoun called on parliament to “take the necessary measures or decisions to prevent things from deviating in a direction that is not in the interest of the country”.

Lebanon's Gebran Bassil calls for consensus president as government vacuum looms The letter also called for caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign, stating that he is “uninterested” in forming a new government. But the present government had already gone into caretaker status following Lebanon’s May 15 parliamentary elections. Although parliament could technically dismiss the prime minister with a two-thirds vote, Mr Aoun’s last-minute decree means little, said constitutional expert Wissam Lahham. Parliament is not constitutionally permitted to designate another prime minister. Only a president can do so. “Aoun demanded that we should take away the premiership from Mikati but of course they can’t choose another premier when there is no president any more,” Mr Lahham said. “They can’t do anything. Of course, the government will continue as it is.”

By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Lebanon’s outgoing head of state Michel Aoun on Sunday launched a blistering attack on his political opponents and the country’s judiciary as he bowed out of the presidential palace. In a speech, the departing president said he was leaving behind, “a robbed country, a worn-out state, and institutions that no longer have any value.” Exiting one day before his mandate expired without a designated successor — deepening the country’s political crisis — he blasted the judiciary for failing to do its job and accused judges of taking bribes. He also blamed opponents for preventing him from bringing to justice Lebanon’s Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh — who is being investigated in several European countries, including Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein for alleged money laundering and embezzlement — who he described as “the perpetrator of all financial crimes.”

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Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government would continue to carry out all of its constitutional duties, in caretaker mode, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution and regulations. And he claimed influential people had blocked attempts to investigate the deadly Beirut port explosion saying the head of the Supreme Judicial Council had not wanted to appoint anyone to look into the disaster. In addition, Aoun announced that he had signed a final decree formalizing the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s caretaker government, exacerbating a months-long power struggle that has paralyzed the government. In a letter to parliament, he called on it not to entrust the caretaker government with the powers of the president, since it had failed to elect a new president within the constitutional deadline. “This government lacks popular legitimacy and thus, constitutional legitimacy,” Aoun said. He also demanded that parliament swiftly select another prime minister-designate to form a government before the presidential term officially ended at midnight on Monday.

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