Hariri ready to be Lebanese prime minister again but with conditions: source

Saad al-Hariri is ready to return as prime minister of a new government, a senior official familiar with his thinking said, on condition it includes technocrats and be capable of quickly implementing reforms needed to stave off economic collapse.

Hariri’s resignation on Tuesday has left Lebanon with a political vacuum at a moment of acute crisis with reforms urgently needed to ward off even deeper financial problems in one of the world’s most heavily indebted states.

The crisis has weighed on Lebanese sovereign debt prices and compounded pressure on the pegged Lebanese pound, which has been weakening on a parallel market below the official rate of 1,507.5 pounds. Prices cited in the black market for U.S. dollars varied from 1,750 pounds to 1,850 on Wednesday.

Hariri resigned after nearly two weeks of massive protests against the political elite, accused by demonstrators of overseeing rampant state corruption, saying he had hit a “dead end” in trying to resolve the crisis.

The senior official, who declined to be identified, said any new cabinet led by Hariri should be devoid of a group of top-tier politicians who were in the outgoing coalition government, without naming them.

Main roads in Lebanon reopened on Wednesday as security forces sought to restore the semblance of normality.

But banks remained closed for an 11th working day.

There was no word yet on when they might reopen even as traffic began moving along major traffic arteries that had been blocked for days by demonstrators whose demands included the cabinet’s resignation.

President Michel Aoun formally asked Hariri on Wednesday to continue in a caretaker role until a new cabinet is formed, as required by Lebanon’s system of government.

There is no obvious alternative to Hariri to fill the post of the prime minister, which is reserved for a Sunni Muslim in Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system.