Leb faces a parliamentary election in June but was plunged into uncertainty two weeks ago by the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, after a dispute over the electoral law and an extension to the term of a top security official.
Mikati, who had called for a "national salvation" government to ensure stability in a country shaken by the conflict in neighbouring Syria, said on Thursday he would not put his name forward again because he could not win consensus backing.
Salam - a Sunni Moslem as all prime ministers must be under Leb's confessional distribution of power - is the son of a former prime minister. His grandfather served under the Ottoman Empire and the French colonial mandate.
He won endorsement from March 14, which has 60 seats in the 128-seat parliament, at a meeting of the political alliance in central Beirut after a lightning trip to Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
for talks with March 14's leader, former prime minister Saad al-Hariri.
March 14 groups mainly Sunni and Christian parties which pushed, with U.S. and European support, for Syria to end nearly three decades of military presence in Leb in 2005.
Salam was also expected to win the support of Druze leader Walid
WallyJumblat
...
Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling..., whose seven seats hold the balance of power.