Prime Minister Tammam Salam Saturday formed a 24-member unity
government, ending months of political deadlock in Lebanon.
A presidential decree appointing
Salam and his Cabinet was issued after talks between the president, prime
minister-designate and Parliament speaker.
The government brings together
Lebanon’s rival March 14 and March 8 coalitions
as well as so-called centrist figures loyal to the president, prime minister
and Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid
Jumblatt. Hezbollah has two ministers in the government.
Salam was appointed on April 6,
2013, after a fall out among ministers led to the resignation of his
predecessor’s government.
Salam named Samir Moqbel as deputy
prime minister and defense minister. Nuhad Mashnouq was named interior
minister, Gebran Bassil foreign minister and Ali Hasan Khalil finance minister.
Retired police chief Ashraf Rifi,
seen as a controversial figure by the March 8 coalition, was appointed justice
minister.
The Energy portfolio was handed to
Tashnag MP Arthur Nazarian.
The government line-up includes only
one female minister – Judge Alice Shabtini for the Ministry for the Displaced.
Source: dailystar
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