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Saad named next Lebanese premier

Saturday, June 27, 2009 BEIRUT: Saad Hariri, son of slain billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, was named Lebanon's new prime minister on Saturday, a presidential statement said. "According to the constitution and after the president consulted with the speaker of parliament and parliamentarians, he (Lebanese President Michel Sleiman) summoned Saad Hariri and tasked him with forming a new government," the statement said. In total, Hariri was proposed by 86 of Lebanon's 128 deputies -- the 71 from his own majority alliance, plus pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri and his bloc of 12 MPs and two Armenian MPs, the various groups said. Berri's allies in the Hezbollah-led minority coalition said they abstained from naming anyone for the top post, reserved for a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon's complex sectarian political system. Hariri, who heads the Sunni Future movement, has urged his supporters to refrain from firing celebratory shots after his expected designation but the news was greeted by fireworks across parts of the capital Beirut.

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