Lebanon acquired a new 30-minister government led by Saad al-Hariri, bringing together the entire political spectrum except for the Christian Phalangist party that rejected the portfolio it was offered.
The new cabinet, which was announced on state television on Sunday evening, will keep Gebran Bassil as foreign minister, Ali Hassan Khalil as finance minister and Nouhad Machnouk as interior minister.
According to Aljazeera, the cabinet will also include Yacoub al-Sarraf as the new defense minister and Cesar Abou Khalil as the new energy and water minister, two of the other most important jobs.
“This is a government of entente,” Hariri said of the new lineup, formed six weeks after the election of President Michel Aoun .
New portfolios include an anti-corruption post and, for the first time, a minister of state for women’s affairs.
Hariri said the Phalangist Party had been offered a minister of state post but had turned it down.
The new government will have “at the top of its list of priorities to preserve security against the fires ravaging our region”, Hariri told reporters.
He stressed that the government would act to “preserve our country from the negative consequences of the Syrian crisis”.
On November 3, former prime minister, Hariri, was nominated to form Lebanon’s next government that will have two ministers from Hezbollah.
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