Dubai: Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati signed Friday the decree to form the new government, bringing to an end the 13 months-long deadlock that had hampered the formation of a cabinet.
Addressing the nation moments after meeting with Aoun, Mikati described the situation in the country as “difficult,” adding that the country was out of foreign currency reserves for essential subsidies.
Everyone should “tighten their seatbelts,” he said. Lebanon’s national currency has lost around 90 percent of its value since mass protests broke out in late 2019.
Despite the bleak circumstances engulfing the country, Mikati expressed hope in stopping the collapse and bringing back “prosperity.”
With Lebanon set to hold parliamentary elections next may, Mikati’s government is expected to remain in power for less than eight months. He pledged to hold the elections on time, saying “we must hold elections on time, that is my intention.”
Mikati’s government must now secure a vote of confidence from parliament, the last hurdle before coming into power.
Eddy Maalouf, a parliamentarian in President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement bloc told Arab News that the government would be formed of 24 ministers. “The government had been decided on for a couple of days but small questions remained,” he said. The deadlock, which reportedly stemmed from Mikati’s attempts to name several Christian ministers, had been settled.
“Two Christian ministers have been chosen with both of their approvals,” Maalouf said.
Opponents of Aoun had accused him of seeking such veto power whether the government has 20, 22 or 24 ministers.
Mikati was the third man to take on the mantle after his predecessors Moustapha Adib and Saad Hariri failed to come to terms with Aoun. Lebanon’s power-sharing system stipulates that both the president and prime minister should agree on a government lineup in unison.
Hariri had stepped down in July over “key differences” with the president after being nominated nine months earlier. Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government since outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab stepped down in the immediate aftermath of the Beirut port explosion in Aug. 2020, exacerbating an economic collapse that has plunged over 60 percent of the population into poverty. AFP
