Lebanon Finally Gets New Government Amid Crisis

Date: 10 September 2021 - 22:21

News ID: ۹۴۲۲۲

BEIRUT (Dispatches) -- The formation of a new government in Lebanon was agreed on Friday, after more than a year of political paralysis in the country following the resignation of the previous cabinet in the wake of the Beirut port explosion.
Lebanon’s prime minister-designate, Najib Mikati, met with President Michel Aoun early on Friday afternoon to finalize the formation of the much-delayed cabinet, a top presidency official told AFP.
The presidency announced shortly afterwards that a government had been formed.
The new government will hold its first meeting on Monday, an official told Reuters.
“The situation in the country is difficult,” Mikati said in a speech after signing the decree. “I hope I can stop the collapse and bring prosperity back to the country.”
But Mikati added that the Central Bank no longer had enough reserves to maintain subsidies, calling on people in Lebanon to “tighten their belts”. Three quarters of the country’s population have already been forced into poverty by a severe financial crisis since late 2019.
Like the outgoing cabinet of caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab, the new one mostly comprises of ministers with technical expertise who are not prominent politicians, but have been backed by the main parties.
Youssef Khalil, a senior central bank official and aide to its governor, Riad Salameh, was named finance minister - perhaps one of the most sensitive roles given the country’s current economic collapse.
Politically unaffiliated ministers include Firass Abiad, the director of Rafik Hariri University Hospital and a leading figure of the country’s Covid-19 response, to head the health portfolio.
The 24-member government includes only one woman - Najla Riachi, the minister for administrative reform.
Mikati, who has been prime minister twice before and is the country’s richest man, was designated on July 26 to form a government after his two predecessors threw in the towel.
Saad Hariri, who resigned as designate premier in July after nine months of unsuccessful negotiations to put together a cabinet, welcomed the news on Friday.
But Sami Nader, a Lebanese political analyst, argued there was little hope for a breakthrough if the dynamics that prevailed during the cabinet lineup negotiations remained in place.
“The continuation of quota politics and bickering over every reform and decision would mean no departure from what the caretaker government was able to do,” he told AFP. “It was the same cooks who formed this government, so can they offer a different meal?”
Lebanon has been run by a caretaker government since 10 August 2020, when Diab and his cabinet resigned en masse following the blast that devastated entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital and killed over 210 people.
The explosion has been largely blamed on the country’s political class - many of whom were militia leaders during the 1975-1990 civil war - whose corruption is widely believed to have led to thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored in unsafe conditions in the heart of Beirut for years.
An investigation into the blast has meanwhile proceeded at glacial pace, with MPs stalling a vote on the investigating judge’s request to lift immunity from

prosecution for political figures and high-level security officials suspected in the case.
Already struggling financially, the country has only further descended into economic turmoil since the explosion.
The Lebanese currency has lost 90 percent of its value since late 2019 amid U.S. sanctions, and shortages in fuel, medicine and basic needs have become widespread. Lebanon can no longer provide mains electricity to its citizens for more than a few hours a day, nor can it afford to buy the fuel needed to power generators.
Parliamentary polls are due next year, with many pinning their hopes on the ballot bringing in fresh blood, while others doubt meaningful change can prevail with the same sectarian electoral system.