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Mikati Bites The Bullet, Resigns

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced his resignation, in a move many attribute to his government's inability to hold parliamentary elections on schedule, writes Elie Hajj.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati kisses Deputy Prime Minister Samir Moqbel after announcing his resignation at the Grand Serail, the government headquarters in Beirut, March 22, 2013. Mikati announced his resignation on Friday after Shi'ite group Hezbollah and its allies blocked the creation of a body to supervise parliamentary elections and opposed extending the term of a senior security official. REUTERS/ Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3FCES
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Politicians following recent developments have told Al-Monitor that the real, substantive cause that drove Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign was his government's inability to hold parliamentary elections on schedule.

Since Thursday evening, the now-resigned Prime Minister Mikati had been dropping repeated hints that he planned to take a “major step.” But few believed that he would actually resign. Skeptics and acquaintances pointed to prior episodes that had demonstrated the prime minister was a first-class maneuverer, possessing an extraordinary ability to absorb political shocks and convulsions while still retaining remarkably calm nerves. So much so that MP Farid Makari, vice-president of the Lebanese Parliament and former friend of Mikati’s, once dubbed him “a hypnotist.”

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