Crisis-hit Lebanon gets new cabinet after 13-month wait
- 10 Sep 2021
Gulf Today Report
Lebanon ended a 13-month wait for a new government on Friday with the unveiling of a lineup that faces the daunting task of rescuing the country from economic meltdown.
The new cabinet of 24 ministers headed by Najib Mikati, a billionaire businessman, was announced by the president’s office and later by the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, Mahmoud Makkieh.
Mikati, a Sunni, and President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, signed a decree establishing the government in the presence of Nabih Berri, the Shiite speaker of parliament, the presidency said.
Youssef Khalil, a senior central bank official and aide to governor Riad Salameh, was named finance minister in the proposed new cabinet line-up. Like the outgoing cabinet of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, the new one is expected to comprise ministers with technical expertise who are not prominent politicians but have been named by the main parties.
Mikati, Lebanon's prime minister for the third time, made an emotional statement from the presidency vowing to leave no stone unturned in efforts to save the country from bankruptcy. Holding back tears, Mikati said he recognised the pain of Lebanese mothers who cannot feed their children or find aspirin to ease their ailments, as well as to students whose parents can no longer afford to send them to school.
"The situation is difficult but not impossible to deal with if we cooperate,” Mikati told reporters at the presidential palace, where the new government line-up was announced.
"We will make use of every second to call international bodies and ensure the basic everyday life needs," he said, adding his government would also turn to Arab
countries for help. Mikati, who was designated as prime minister in July after his two predecessors failed to clinch an agreement on a new line-up, unveiled his list of ministers.
The government is also expected to overseeing a financial audit of the Central Bank, and resume negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a rescue package. The agreement breaks a 13-month deadlock that saw the country slide deeper into financial chaos and poverty over the past year. A date for parliament to convene to approve the government and its plan has not yet been announced.
It was not immediately clear what sudden compromise resulted in the breakthrough on Friday.
The announcement of a new government comes after renewed US and French pressure to form a cabinet as Lebanon’s economic unraveling reached a critical point that risked a social explosion. Crippling shortages in fuel and medicine threatened to shut down hospitals, bakeries and the country’s internet and caused friction, sometimes violence, in long queues to fill up vehicles.
