by National — Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Hassan Diab formed a government late on Tuesday, 34 days after he was nominated. The former university professor will have to address Lebanon’s worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990, amid nationwide protests. Mr Diab was intent on forming a government of 18 ministers but caved in at the last minute to political pressure and added two more to his Cabinet. Many had already taken to the streets on Tuesday to reject his government, which they consider to be of “one colour”. That meant it is backed by President Michel Aoun and his allies, including Iran-aligned Hezbollah, and does not include western-supported parties such as former prime minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement.
The National asked three Lebanon experts for their take on the new government. “The government today is an interesting mix between specialists and others who are affiliated with political parties,” including advisers to former ministers, said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre. Ms Yahya said one name stood out: Foreign Affairs Minister Nassif Hitti, a Maronite Christian and formerly Lebanon’s ambassador to the Arab League. “He is quite highly regarded and a good former diplomat,” she said. This is the first Lebanese Cabinet to include six women, including the first female Defence Minister, Zeina Akar. Ms Akar, a Greek-Orthodox Christian, is also the country’s first female Deputy Prime Minister. “Her appointment came out of left field. Nobody saw this coming,” Ms Yahya said. “She has never occupied a public office before.” But she criticised the process of forming the government, which was conducted as usual through back-door negotiations between political parties. “This is just not what protesters were aspiring to so I don’t think it’s going to end well,” Ms Yahya said. She also said the government might not be up to the task of addressing Lebanon’s rapidly deteriorating economic situation. “I cannot underestimate the size of the challenges that the country is facing on economic and fiscal terms, and their repercussions on society, on the standards of living, and in the medium term, on the stability of the country,” Ms Yahya said.
Karim Bitar, an international relations analyst at the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris, told The National that most ministers were completely unknown to the public, although “several highly respectable figures” were included. Mr Bitar also pointed to Mr Hitti, and said Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem, a Maronite, was a “highly skilled lawyer and respected professor at St Joseph University in Beirut”. “She has worked extensively on promoting an independent judiciary,” he said. “She is in favour of the unification of personal status laws which is a demand of Lebanese civil society, but will certainly face staunch opposition from the most conservative segments of the Lebanese religious establishment.” Those laws would include the possibility of civil marriage. This is impossible in Lebanon, which only celebrates religious marriages under the rules of the country’s 18 sects. “So, when it comes to justice reform, there are reasons to be optimistic,” Mr Bitar said. But he said the public was cautious about the new government because people were afraid that the traditional parties, which have ruled since the end of the civil war in 1990, will use the new figures as “window dressing” while they continue making major decisions.
Mr Bitar also criticised the “considerable missteps” in the new Cabinet, such as giving the Culture and Agriculture ministries to the same person, Abbas Mortada, a Shiite. “This is another example showing that very often these governments are not formed on the basis of competence and meritocracy, but they try at the very last minute to satisfy the various demands of stakeholders, which produces weird attributions,” he said. Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, said he had “mixed feelings” about the new government. “It does not bode well because the same old system of power distribution among sectarian groups” has been followed, Mr Nader said. “That said, there are at least five very good names. The question is, will they be able get rid of the old political system? “Will they be free to act on their own and deliver good work, or will they be the hostages of the system?”
by reuters — New Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said Lebanon needed foreign aid to save it from an unprecedented situation that had forced people to “beg for dollars” at the banks and fear for their deposits. He also described forthcoming foreign currency sovereign debt maturities as “a fireball”. The cabinet is made up of 20 specialist ministers backed by parties. Wazni, an economist who had served as an adviser to Parliament’s finance and budget committee, was nominated with the backing of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Nassif Hitti, a former ambassador to the Arab League, was named foreign minister with the backing of Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement. Any Government is better than vaccum Diab described his government as a technocratic “rescue team” that would work to achieve protesters’ goals. His first trip abroad would be to the Arab region, particularly the Gulf.
by AP BY ZEINA KARAM AND BASSEM MROUE — BEIRUT — A new Cabinet was announced in crisis-hit Lebanon late Tuesday, breaking a months-long impasse amid mass protests against the country’s ruling elite and a crippling financial crisis, but demonstrations and violence continued. Hassan Diab, a 60-year-old former professor at the American University of Beirut, announced a Cabinet of 20 members — mostly specialists supported by the Shiite group Hezbollah and allied political parties. Even before the Cabinet was announced, thousands of people poured into the streets, closing major roads in the capital of Beirut and other parts of the country in protest. The protesters complained that political groups still were involved in the naming of the new ministers, even if they are specialists and academics. Later, a group of protesters near Parliament threw stones, firecrackers and sticks at security forces, who responded with tear gas and pepper spray. “We want a government of experts … who are they kidding?” said one protester, Fadi Zakour. “We have been protesting for 90 days and we are not happy to close roads,” he added.
Diab saluted the protesters in the street and vowed to “work to fulfill your demands.” In a speech addressing the country following the government announcement, he added that his Cabinet is the first government in the history of Lebanon to be made up entirely of technocrats and insisted the 20 ministers are specialists who have no political loyalties and are not partisan. He appealed to citizens to help the government implement a “rescue program” and said this Cabinet has the “capability and qualifications, will and commitment” to carry it through. “It’s time to get to work,” Diab said.
For three months, the leaderless protests have been calling for a government made up of specialists that can work on dealing with the economic crisis. The protests have recently turned violent, with around 500 people injured in confrontations between protesters and security forces over the weekend. Although the government announced Tuesday is technically made up of specialists, the ministers were named by political parties in a process involving horse trading and bickering with little regard for the demands of protesters for a transparent process and independent candidates. Still, among the ministers named were accomplished academics and six women, including the minister of defense and deputy prime minister. The number is a record for Lebanon, with women now holding more than quarter of the Cabinet posts, including those of defense, justice, labor, youth and sports and the displaced. “The independence of justice will be among our top priorities and I will put all my efforts to move in this direction,” Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm told local LBC TV. Analysts said the new government, being politically aligned with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, would likely have difficulty drumming up international and regional support needed to avoid economic collapse. “The Cabinet includes a fair number of capable technocrats, but it does not have any political independence to speak of,” wrote Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute. “This government is likely to be short lived, to preside over a steep decline in the economy, a dangerous swerve in the state’s security relationships, and growing social and political unrest in the country,” he predicted.
The heads of the main ministries include career diplomat Naseef Hitti for the Foreign Ministry. Economist Ghazi Wazni was named finance minister and former army Gen. Mohammed Fahmi was named minister of the interior. Zeina Akar was named minister of defense and deputy prime minister. Lebanon has been without a government since Hariri resigned Oct. 29, two weeks into the unprecedented nationwide protest movement. Diab dismissed accusations that his was a government made up of one political camp consisting of Hezbollah and its allies, insisting it was the government of all of Lebanon. He also said it was natural to consult with political parties on the names of ministers, because in the end they are the ones that will decide the vote of confidence in Parliament needed for the Cabinet. Diab said his first visit as prime minister will be to the Arab region, particularly to the Gulf Arab countries — a nod to Saudi Arabia, which was the main backer of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Backing from oil-rich Gulf countries is badly needed in Lebanon that has one of the highest debt ratios in the world. He said the government would get to work immediately and hold its first meeting Wednesday.
Panic and anger have gripped the public as the Lebanese pound, pegged to the dollar for more than two decades, plummeted in value. It fell more than 60% in recent weeks on the black market. The economy has seen no growth and flows of foreign currency dried up in the already heavily indebted country that relies on imports for most basic goods. Shortly before the Cabinet was announced Tuesday night, the Syndicate of Money Changers in Lebanon issued a statement saying it had agreed to set the exchange rate at a maximum of 2,000 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, after it reached 2,500 pounds to the dollar last week. The official price still stands at 1,507 to the dollar.
