By Hussein Abdallah, BEIRUT: Lebanon announced a 30-member national unity government on Friday after almost five weeks of disputes over the distribution of portfolios. The lineup was announced in a decree signed by President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora following a short meeting between them and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. The formation of the Cabinet came in line with the accord sealed in Doha on May 21 which allocated 16 cabinet seats to the parliamentary majority, 11 to the opposition, and three to the president. The opposition took the coveted posts of foreign minister, telecommunications minister and deputy premier in the new Cabinet, while the ruling bloc kept the Finance Ministry. The president, who himself only took office four days after the Doha accord, filling a post left vacant since November, made three appointments, including Elias Murr, who kept the defense portfolio despite opposition reservations. He also appointed lawyer and electoral law expert Ziyad Baroud to head the Interior Ministry, which will be responsible for organizing legislative elections next year. Finance Minister Mohammad Shatah, who was appointed by the ruling bloc, served as Siniora's senior adviser in the previous cabinet. The government includes one woman, MP Bahia Hariri, sister of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. She is to head the Education Ministry. Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, whose party had not been represented in the previous government, took four posts in the new one, plus the deputy premiership. Hizbullah was allocated three seats in the Cabinet, but only one of them went to a Hizbullah member - Labor Minister Mohammad Fneish.
The two other seats were given to the resistance movement's allies in the opposition.
Berri also managed to keep two of his ministers in their posts (Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh), while obtaining the Industry Minister for MP Ghazi Zeaiter.
Siniora told reporters after the announcement of the lineup that the new Cabinet would be "the government of all the Lebanese" and that it would have two key tasks.
"The government's first task is to restore confidence in political institutions and the Lebanese political system ... and to promote moderation," he said.
"The second task, which I want to focus on, is to assure that next year's parliamentary elections will be help transparently ... The duty of the government is to come out with a new electoral law that guarantees justice and true representation," he added.
Siniora said that the new government will help all political parties to resolve their differences within state institutions.
"Our differences will not be resolved overnight, but we have decided to resolve them through institutions and dialogue rather than in the streets," the premier said.
Siniora said he hoped that the new Cabinet will function harmoniously despite all the contradictions within it.
The government's inaugural meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
The prime minister also told reporters that his concern for the national interest made him change his mind on accepting the nomination of former Syrian Social Nationalist Party head Ali Qanso.
Qanso was tipped by Hizbullah, but his nomination was strongly resisted by Siniora.
"I had to choose between my personal demands and national interest ... I chose national interest," Siniora said.
The premier also described as "good" an upcoming meeting between Sleiman and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Sleiman will leave for Paris on Saturday to join a Paris summit of European and Mediterranean leaders, scheduled for Sunday. Assad was also invited to take part in the same summit.
Siniora responded vaguely when asked if he was planning to visit Syria any soon.
"I believe in bilateral relations between Lebanon and Syria that are based on mutual respect," he said.
Meanwhile, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri contacted several ministers in the new government to congratulate them.
In a statement released by Hariri's media office, the Future Movement leader also congratulated the Lebanese people, "who deserve to enjoy some stability, which will be brought about after the formation of the new government."
Hariri saluted all the former ministers who left their posts and thanked them for "sacrifices and outstanding performance while in office."
The MP also thanked fellow Future Movement members for "making sacrifices and concessions in order to achieve national interest."
"All Future figures proved again that they are ready to put their personal ambitions aside and make concessions in order to achieve Lebanon's best interest," he said.
Earlier on Friday, Hariri said that the breakthrough after weeks of efforts to form a new cabinet followed a concession to Hizbullah.
"I have asked Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to accept the nomination of Qanso" in the line-up, he said. "We are making sacrifices in the interests of the country," he added.
Siniora has struggled since the end of May to form a new government of national unity, under the Doha Accord between rival factions following deadly clashes. But the rivals were since locked in political bickering over the distribution of key portfolios.
The formation of the new government means that the second item of the Doha Agreement would have been implemented only after almost five weeks of political bickering and rhetoric.
The first item was implemented on May 25 when Sleiman was elected as president.
The third item of the Doha Agreement will be implemented when Parliament adopts an amended version of the 1960 electoral law for next year's parliamentary elections.
However, the breakthrough came after direct and indirect prodding by Qatari officials to form the government in keeping with their promise to help the Lebanese achieve a settlement to their 18-month old political crisis.
Separately, Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea responded on Friday to recent remarks by Berri, who hinted on Thursday that giving the Justice Ministry to the Lebanese Forces was equivalent to wasting or sacrificing it.
Ibrahim Najjar, a veteran lawyer, was appointed as justice minister upon Geagea's request.
"I would like to point out that justice was mostly wasted and sacrificed between 1984 and 1988," Geagea said, referring to the period when Berri himself occupied the post of justice minister.
"Justice was further sacrificed between 1990 and 2005 during the period of Syrian presence in Lebanon when Berri occupied the post of Parliament speaker," he added.
The LF chief said that giving the justice portfolio to the Lebanese Forces will put the ministry on the right track.
"The LF suffered from oppression in the past," he said, "and knows more than any other party what the real value of justice is."
Also on Friday, the European Union's rotating presidency, currently held by France, welcomed the formation of the new Lebanese government.
"The formation of a unity government marks an important step in the implementation of the Doha Agreement," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
He said it was "essential" to stick to the deal which had "put an end to the political and institutional impasses that paralyzed Lebanon for too long."
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana also welcomed the announcement.
"After the huge difficulties that the country has been through during the past months, this is a key achievement," he said. "Important decisions need to be taken in the coming weeks and there is a lot of work to be done."
"Prime Minister Siniora can be assured that the EU will continue to offer its full and sincere support to his decisive action and to the Lebanese people," he said.
In Washington, the State Department praised the creation of the new government as a critical step in restoring democracy to Lebanon but stressed that, as in the past, it would not have contact with Cabinet members who belong to Hizbullah.
"We welcome the formation of this new Cabinet," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "It was a long political process that has led us to this point, and it was a process that ultimately was a Lebanese one."
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also welcomed the new, saying in Tehran that he hoped it would result in the strengthening of national unity among Lebanese and bring internal stability to their country. - With AFP
Lebanon's new cabinet line-up
BEIRUT: The following is the line-up of Lebanon's new 30-member government of national unity announced on Friday:
- Prime minister: Fouad Siniora
- Deputy prime minister: Issam
Abu Jamra
- Defense minister: Elias Murr
- Foreign minister: Fawzi Saloukh
- Interior minister: Ziyad Baroud
- Finance minister: Mohammad
Shatah
- Minister of state for
administrative development:
Ibrahim Shamseddine
- Telecommunications minister:
Gibran Bassil
- Information minister: Tareq Mitri
- Justice minister: Ibrahim Najjar
- Public Works and Transport
minister: Ghazi Aridi
- Sports and youth minister:
Talal Arslan
- Education minister: Bahia Hariri
- Minister of the displaced:
Raymond Audi
- Energy and water minister:
Alain Tabourian
- Labor minister:
Mohammad Fneish
- Agriculture minister: Elie Skaff
- Health minister:
Mohammad Khalifeh
- Social affairs: Mario Aoun
- Industry minister: Ghazi Zeaiter
- Tourism minister: Elie Marouni
- Culture minister: Tammam Salam
- Environment minister:
Antoine Karam
- Economy and Trade minister:
Mohammad Safadi
- Minister of state: Youssef Taqla
- Minister of state: Wael Bou Faour
- Minister of state: Ali Qanso
- Minister of state: Nassib Lahoud
- Minister of state: Jean Hogassapian
- Minister of state: Khaled Qabbani
