Saad Hariri, the leader of Lebanon’s western-backed parliamentary majority, has resigned as prime minister-designate, leaving the country in political limbo more than three months after the general election.

Mr Hariri blamed the parliamentary minority, which includes the armed Shia Muslim Hizbollah movement, for blocking the formation of a government of national unity. He had held “rounds and rounds of consultations which always ended in obstruction”, Mr Hariri said after submitting his resignation to Michel Suleiman, the president.