Updated on
Summary
Hezbollah-backed Najib Mikati has been officially nominated on Tuesday for Prime Minister of Lebanon after he won backing from Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. Fifty-five year old Mikati, a wealthy Sunni businessman with close ties to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, portrays himself as a consensus candidate who can work with all of Lebanon's rival political camps.The soft-spoken, Harvard-educated Mikati began building his Investcom business in the midst of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. He sold his telecoms interests to South Africa's MTN Group for 5.5 billion US dollars in 2006. He served as minister of public works and transport in three cabinets between 1998 and 2004. Meanwhile, Sunni Muslims loyal to outgoing premier Hariri staged a day of rage, burning tyres and blocking roads in protest at the appointment of Hezbollah-backed Najib Mikati, a Sunni billionaire and centrist lawmaker with ties to both Saudi Arabia and Syria.
