BEIRUT – The candidate backed by the Lebanese Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah was designated on Tuesday to form Lebanon's next government.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman appointed Harvard-educated billionaire businessman and former premier Najib Mikati as prime minister-designate after a majority of lawmakers voted for him, AP reported. Mikati defeated Saad Hariri, who was prime minister from 2009 until Hezbollah forced the unity government he led to collapse two weeks ago.
“My hand is extended to all Lebanese, Muslims and Christians, in order to build and not to destroy,” Mikati said after he was chosen, striking a conciliatory tone and calling for another unity government.
Mikati won 68 votes out of the parliament's 128 seats.
Hezbollah chief said on Tuesday that it is not striving to gain power in the country, blaming rival leaders for their efforts to falsify the truth, Press TV reported.
Speaking on a televised speech addressing people in the Lebanese city of Baalbek, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah rejected claims that the Prime Minister designate Najib Mikati was Hezbollah's pick for the post.
Nasrallah criticized certain political leaders from the rival camp for making efforts to mislead the public opinion in Lebanon and to falsify the truth.
Nasrallah said the resistance understood the feelings of those who were angry at the development but went on to criticize their political leaders for instigating violence by misleading and exciting “good-hearted” protesters.
He said the opposition resignations were in line with the camp's constitutional rights and condemned the West's double standards regarding the parties in Lebanon.
He pointed out how a demonstration by resistance supporters would have drawn condemnations from the international community and the U.S. in particular.
Nasrallah further revealed that Mikati's appointment came despite the intervention of different countries in the two-day parliamentary consultations.
He singled out a phone call by U.S. Vice president Joe Biden, who contacted a Lebanese politician and urged him to give his backing to then caretaker Premier Saad Hariri.
The Hezbollah leader reiterated that the Lebanese resistance is not after gaining power in the country.
He called on all factions in Lebanon to join hands and help Mikati to form an inclusive partnership government, emphasizing that Hezbollah strongly opposes a one-color government.
The Lebanese leader condemned the U.S.-sponsored Hariri tribunal as part of the failed effort by the West and its allies in Lebanon to topple Hezbollah and the country's anti-Israel resistance.
Some Sunnis under the leadership of March 14 group demonstrated for a second day across the country, in Beirut and along the main highway linking the capital with the southern port city of Sidon.
But the largest gathering Tuesday was in the northern city of Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni area and a hotbed of fundamentalists where thousands of people converged at a major square. Protesters attacked a van of Al-Jazeera television, accusing the Arabic satellite station of bias in favor of Hezbollah. The station said no one was injured.
Caretaker Prime Minister Hariri’s government collapsed nearly two weeks ago following the resignation of 11 ministers from the coalition cabinet in a dispute over a U.S.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafiq Hariri.
In a televised speech shortly after his installation, Mikati reached out for all Lebanese factions and called on them to overcome differences and participate in an inclusive unity government.
“Nothing justifies the refusal of any political party to participate” in the next government, he added. “My hand is extended to all Lebanese.”
He called for an end to all political divisions in the country and the establishment of mutual trust “based on national dialogue whereby we can discuss all issues of difference far away from any insult.”
Addressing his opponents who poured into street in protest to his appointment, Mikati said that the outcome of the two-day consultations was not the victory of one political party against another, but a victory of “moderation against extremism and unity against division.”
He said improving the economic situation in Lebanon was his first and foremost priority and vowed not to backtrack on his pledges to defend the rights of the Lebanese people.
Lebanon's newly appointed prime minster further called for calm and unity among the Lebanese people, recalling that the country has paid a heavy price whenever it was hit by divisions and sectarian conflicts.
Despite opposition from the Hariri camp, Mikati is seen as a relatively neutral choice who enjoys good relations with both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and with Hariri, Reuters reported.
Hariri's bloc has insisted it will not join a government led by a Hezbollah “pick”, which could mean months of political deadlock ahead in Lebanon.
According to Lebanon's power-sharing system, the prime minister must be a Sunni, the parliament speaker a Shia and the president must be a Christian Maronite. Each faith makes up about a third of Lebanon's population of four million.