Lebanon forms new cabinet after three-year hiatus
New government will seek to enact reforms in order to tap much-needed aid from donor countries
Lebanon formed a new cabinet on Saturday after an almost-three-year hiatus that left the country reeling during an economic crisis and a 14-month war between Israel and Hizbollah.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the government would enact financial and economic reforms and “be a space for constructive joint work, not for bickering”. Lebanese cabinets are made up of diverse factions rather than a single ruling coalition, so disputes are commonplace.
The new government includes businessmen, veteran ministers and some new faces. Salam, appointed to form a cabinet less than a month ago, has sought to form a grouping that has the international credibility to carry out reforms and to reduce the influence of Hizbollah and its ally the Amal Movement.
Lebanon’s donor countries have made badly-needed reconstruction aid conditional on the appointment of a cabinet capable of reforming the dysfunctional state and sidelining Hizbollah, which has been badly weakened by its war with Israel.
White House Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus said on Friday that the US would not accept Hizbollah being represented in government.
Amal has retained control of the crucially important finance ministry via the appointment of longtime MP and former economy minister Yassine Jaber.
In Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, the president a Maronite Christian and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. The cabinet is divided along sectarian lines.
Salam had insisted on naming one of the Shia ministers himself, leading to a showdown over the past four days as he and longtime parliament speaker Nabih Berri, head of Amal, clashed over candidates for the post.
The appointment of behavioural economist and former economy official Fadi Makki as a Shia minister could give Salam at least one Shia ally in the chamber if Hizbollah and Amal later boycott the cabinet, as has happened in the past.
The cabinet will now require a parliamentary vote of confidence to formally take charge, but it has been decades since parliament withheld its approval.
The new cabinet faces the decision of whether to include a reference to the right of the Lebanese to resist Israeli occupation — in practical terms a reference to Hizbollah’s weapons — in its ministerial statement, which forms the government’s platform. The last time a ministerial statement did not endorse the resistance by name was 1996.
Although the war between Hizbollah and Israel ended with a ceasefire in November, Israel continues to strike Lebanon, including a drone strike on Saturday that killed at least three people, according to state news.