Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued the following statement:

I followed what the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, said in his televised speech this evening, and I share his saying that the constitution is the arbiter and the adjudication of all issues.

As for what His Excellency spoke about of private issues and facts that are fragmented, distorted or incorrect,…suffice to say with regret: Sometimes our elders betray memory, so facts are mixed with wishes and facts with illusions!

President Mikati’s response came in response to President Aoun’s statements in which he said: “I am about to sign a decree accepting the resignation of Najib Mikati’s government, and the current government does not enjoy confidence and cannot govern and I am about to sign a decree accepting her resignation, and Mikati has no desire to… Forming a government, and there must be unity in the formation criteria, and I will give a chance until the end of my term,” noting that “the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Representative Gibran Bassil, set the specifications that the next president of the republic should possess and present them to the parliamentary blocs.”