After three months of street riots and a crippling cash crunch, Lebanon has established a government.
Against all expectations, Sunni Prime Minister, Hassane Diab, succeeded in putting together a government in just over one month.
Neither the Future Movement Party (Saad Hariri, Sunni), nor the Lebanese Forces (of war criminal Samir Geagea, Maronite), or the Progressive Socialist Party (of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, guilty of crimes against humanity) are part of the government. On 21 January, they staged demonstrations against the government even before its composition was unveiled.
A quarter of the ministers are women, which is in itself revolutionary. None of the ministers belonged to the outgoing government. Two are members of Hezbollah despite the threat of sanctions brandished by the United Kingdom. Two others are members of the Marada Movement, despite only having two representatives in parliament.
This government seems to be much more competent than the previous ones, but its success does not depend on that. It will have to interface with the political class, disunited on the surface, but united when it comes to safeguarding its privileges, and to do away with the confessional system crafted by France during the Second World War. In the immediate future, the new government must tackle the banking crisis in which several top officials of the parties backing it have played a role.
It is composed as follows:
Prime Minister’s team (Hassan Diab)
Prime Minister | Hassan Diab | Sunni |
Interior and Municipalities | Mohammad Fahmi | Sunni |
Education | Tarek Majzoub | Sunni |
Environment and Administrative Development | Damien Kattar | Maronite |
President’s team (General Michel Aoun)
Deputy Prime Minister and National Defense | Zeina Acar | Greek-Orthodox |
Foreign Affairs and Immigration | Nassif Hitti | Maronite |
Justice | Marie-Claude Najm | Maronite |
Energy | Raymond Ghajar | Greek-Orthodox |
Economy and Commerce | Raoul Nehmé | Greek-Catholic |
Displaced persons | Ghada Chreim Ata | Greek-Catholic |
Parliament Speaker’s team (Nabih Berri)
Health | Hamad Ali Hassan | Hezbollah, Shia |
Industry | Imad Houballah | Hezbollah, Shia |
Finance | Ghazi Wazni | Amal, Shia |
Agriculture and Culture | Abbas Mortada | Amal, Shia |
Marada Movement representatives (Sleiman Frangié)
Public Works | Michel Najjar | Greek-Orthodox |
Labour | Lamia Yammine | Maronite |
Democratic Party representatives (Prince Talal Arslane)
Social Affaires and Tourism | Ramzi Moucharrafiyé | Druze |
Information | Manale Abdel Samad | Druze |
Al Lekaa el Tashawiri Lebanon Party Representative
Telecommunications | Talal Hawat | Sunni |
Tashnag Party representative
Youth and Sports | Varty Ohanian Kevorkian | Armenian-Orthodox |
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