Lebanon - new government

Prime Minister forms unity cabinet with Hezbollah

Article published on the 2009-11-10 Latest update 2009-11-10 17:22 TU

Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman meets with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri (right) and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (left) at the presidential palace, after the formation of the country's new unity cabinet.
Photo: Reuters

Lebanon's Prime Minister formed a cabinet on Monday that includes Hezbollah and its allies, ending a political deadlock that left the country without a government for more than four months.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri unveiled the 30-member cabinet after more than four months of tough bargaining with his rivals in the Hezbollah-led political coalition over who would get which portfolios.

Hariri's Western-backed bloc narrowly defeated the Hezbollah-led group in June's parliamentary election, enabling it to retain a slim majority in the 128-member legislature. But Hariri's obligation to include his powerful rivals in a national unity government was the cue for months of wrangling.

"Finally, the government of national accord has been born," Hariri said after submitting his list of ministers to President Michel Suleiman late Monday.

"We have turned a page that we don't want to go back to and opened a new page that we strive to make a page of agreement and work."

Hariri and his partners will have 15 seats in the new cabinet, while ten go to Hezbollah and its allies. The other five seats were chosen by President Suleiman.

The arrangement is designed to deny either Hariri's or Hezbollah's bloc a majority in the cabinet, leaving the deciding vote - in theory - to the President's ministers.

But analysts say that deep divisions remain between the rival factions and could lead to another political stalemate.

Meanwhile, international observers have hailed the new cabinet as a step towards unity in Lebanon.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the new ministers and called on them to recommit to the full implementation of the Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, while a European Union statement urged the new government to carry out political and economic reform in Lebanon.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has also pledged the former colonial power's full support for Hariri's cabinet.