Lebanon: PM-designate Saad Hariri resigns as crisis escalates

Lebanon Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri stepped down on Thursday after failing to form a government for over the past eight months.

Hariri resigned following a brief meeting with President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace.

“I withdrew from forming the government,” he told reporteres. “And may god save this country.”

Political deadlock has persisted since Hariri’s reappointment last October, despite diplomatic pressure from France, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. The European Union has threatened to implement sanctions on Lebanese officials.

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