Lebanon’s President Aoun asks Hariri to head caretaker cabinet

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun on Wednesday accepted the government’s resignation, but asked it to stay on until a new cabinet is formed, AFP reports. Aoun said the measure followed the constitutional provision for cases in which the government steps down, his office said in a statement.

PM Saad al-Hariri announced his cabinet’s resignation on Tuesday, the 13th day of a wave of protests triggered by a proposed tax on calls via free phone applications.

That proposal was then scrapped, but the demonstrations swelled into a broad cross-sectarian call for an end to a political system viewed as corrupt and inefficient. Many of the country's ruling elite hail from political parties or families that have been in power since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

It is unclear what a new government would look like and whether it would include independent technocrats, as demanded by the demonstrators.