After months of negotiations, Lebanon has a new unity government comprising several factions but, as Natalya Antelava reports, many people there now view any government as largely irrelevant.

The noise was becoming unbearable. From all sides, dozens of drivers blared their horns, waved their fists and shouted at the person in front of them.

"It's all his fault," my taxi driver spat out, pointing straight ahead. I ducked out to look.

There, in the middle of the sea of honking cars, stood a thin young man in an oversized policeman's uniform.

Helplessly he waved his skinny arms trying to steer angry drivers. The problem was that he was steering them in all directions at the same time.

"He is the one who created the jam, he should just mind his own business," my taxi driver said. The fact that traffic was the policeman's business did not seem to cross his mind.

Ask anyone in Beirut and they will tell you that, if there is a really bad traffic jam, chances are there is a policeman behind it. It is not always true, of course, but it is certainly indicative of how Lebanese people approach authority.

"The best thing that the government can do is stay out of my life," a friend recently told me.

Political paralysis

The attitude is not surprising. For decades, Lebanon's politicians have done nothing but drive the country into deadlock.

The new government's first meeting was on 10 November 2009

The country's current crisis is just the latest episode of its chronic political paralysis.

Lebanon finally forms government  

Mr Hariri's bloc won the election but had to form a unity government Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has announced the formation of the 30-member national-unity cabinet - five months after a general election. Five ministers were chosen by President Suleiman, and 15 are from PM-designate Saad Hariri's Western-backed coalition.

The remaining 10 are from the opposition, including two members of Hezbollah, which struck a deal with the governing coalition last week.  The deadlock over the new government had threatened Lebanon's stability.  Mr Hariri's coalition won a narrow majority in June's election, but needed to negotiate with the opposition to form a unity government.  "Finally, a government of national unity is born," Mr Hariri said.  "I want to be honest from the start: this government can be a chance to renew faith in the state and its institutions... or it can turn into a replay of our failures."  'Real partnership'Hezbollah representative Mohammed Fneish told the Associated Press news agency: "This formula achieves the principle of real partnership in political decision-making on key decisions."

One of the major reasons behind the delay was a series of extensive deliberations by Hariri with Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun, who insisted that his Reform and Change bloc be granted a basket of key portfolios.