ChemistryEquipment: Hezbollah dominate new Lebanon cabinet

Monday, June 13, 2011

Hezbollah dominate new Lebanon cabinet

Najib Mikati at the presidential palace of Baabda, 13 June

Najib Mikati was appointed as Lebanon's new prime minister on 25 January

Lebanon has announced a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, nearly five months after he was nominated.

The country has been without a functioning government since January, when Hezbollah and its allies toppled the coalition of pro-Western Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

The new cabinet gives the powerful Shia group and its allies 16 of 30 seats, up from 10 previously, reports say.

But Mr Mikati has vowed that his cabinet will represent all Lebanese.

"Do not judge intentions and people, but rather actions," he said during a televised news conference.

His predecessor, US- and Saudi-backed Saad Hariri, was forced to resign in January after Hezbollah and its allies pulled their ministers from the national unity government.

At issue was a UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the father of Saad Hariri.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate if its members are indicted, as is widely expected. The group denies any links to the killing of the Sunni Muslim prime minister and calls the court a conspiracy by the US and Israel.

Key incoming ministersFinance: Mohammed Safadi, former economy ministerDefence: Fayez GhosnInterior: Marwan CharbelTelecommunications: Nicholas Sehnawi

The Shia Muslim movement has built itself, with the help of Iran and Syria, into the most powerful military formation in Lebanon, as well as a highly successful political and social organisation.

Correspondents say events in Lebanon matter because it is an important theatre in the face-off between the US and its allies, especially Saudi Arabia - and Iran, Syria and their allies.

The 30-member cabinet was announced on Monday by Suheil Bouji, Prime Minister Mikati's secretary-general.

It must still be formally presented before parliament to win a vote of confidence.

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