Alwaght- Lebanese new Prime Minister has selected its new cabinet that should be approved by the national parliament.
All parties in the political spectrum of the country are present in the new cabinet and only the Christian Phalangist party refused the positions offered by the Prime Minister, Saad al-Hariri.
"Today a new government was formed…This is a government of entente," said Hariri about the new cabinet, formed six weeks after the election of President Michel Aoun.
Some figures from previous cabinet, including Gebran Bassil, Ali Hassan Khalil, and Nouhad Machnouk remained in their post respectively as foreign minister, finance minister, and the interior minister.
The new faces in the cabinet include Yacoub al-Sarraf as defense minister and Cesar Abou Khalil as the minister for energy and water. Moreover, new posts such as anti-corruption minister and minister of state for women's affairs have been added to the government.
On October 31, Lebanese legislators elected Aoun as president, ending a 29-month presidential vacuum. The Maronite Christian founder of the Free Patriotic Movement succeeded Michel Sleiman.
Aoun garnered 83 votes in the 128-seat assembly as parliamentarians convened for their 46th attempt to choose a head of state.
At his swearing-in in the parliament building, Aoun said Lebanon must be protected from “regional fires,” a reference to the foreign-sponsored militancy in neighboring Syria on top of crises in Iraq and Yemen.
