Lebanon has
acquired a new 30-minister government led by Saad Hariri, bringing
together the entire political spectrum except for the Kataeb party that rejected the portfolio it was offered. The new cabinet, which was announced on state television on
Sunday evening, will keep Gebran Bassil as foreign minister, Ali Hassan
Khalil as finance minister and Nouhad Machnouk as interior minister. “This is a government of entente,” Prime Minister Hariri
said of the new line-up formed six weeks after the election of President
Michel Aoun.

The new government will also include Yacoub al-Sarraf as the
new defence minister and Cesar Abou Khalil as the new energy and water
minister, two of the other most important jobs. New portfolios include an anti-corruption post and, for the first time, a minister of state for women.

The Cabinet includes 22 newcomers and only one woman. Five new
ministries have also been established: State Ministry for Refugees
Affairs, State Ministry to Combat Terrorism, State Ministry for
Presidential Affairs, State Ministry for Women’s Affairs, and State
Ministry for Human Rights.

Armenians Avedis Gidanian of the Tachnaq party as Tourism Minister
and former Minister of State for Administrative Development Jean
Oghassabian are a part of the new Cabinet.