by AFP — Sunni Muslim leaders threw their weight behind the Saad Hariri, the country’s caretaker Prime Minister who resigned in late October over massive public unrest shaking Lebanon, his key contender said Sunday. Businessman Samir Khatib had been put forward as the likely successor to 49-year-old Hariri, but he said a visit to the country’s highest Sunni Muslim authority had indicated otherwise. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdellatif Deryan informed Khatib that “a consensus had been reached to name Saad Hariri as prime minister to form the next government”, the 72-year-old businessman said after relaying the news to caretaker PM in person. Under Lebanon’s political system, designed to maintain a balance between the three key religious groups in the country – the Maronite Christians, Sunnis and Shiites – the PM’s office is to be held by a Sunni leader. Hariri, who has been in power on and off since 2009, ruffled some feathers with the other major political actors in the ongoing turmoil by insisting that Lebanon needs a government of specialist ministers – and that he would only return to head a government like that. Hezbollah, the dominant Shiite force in the country, wanted it to include politicians as well. Lebanon desperately needs a new government to rebuild trust with both protesters demanding a cabinet of independent experts, and international donors able to provide financial aid. The demonstrators, however, have up until now protesting against the system itself, seeing the country’s political class as fundamentally corrupt and unable to govern. On Sunday evening, dozens of protesters gathered in central Beirut near a road leading to parliament closed of by security forces.