Lebanon forms 30-minister national unity govt. after marathon negotiations

Regional, int'l powers welcome new govt., hope step would help realize stability

Lebanese army sets up post in Shebaa Farms

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman issued decrees pertaining to the new national unity government in the country under Fouad al-Siniora as prime minister and his deputy Essam Abu Jamra.

The cabinet's secretary general, Suhail Bouja, recited the names of members of the new government. They are:

Fouad al-Siniora as prime minister. Essam Abu Jamra as deputy prime minister. Elias al-Murr as minister of national defense. Talal Arslan as minister of youths & sports. Ghazi Zeitar as minister of industry. Ghazi al-Uraidi as minister of public works & transport. Ali Qanso as minister of state. Elias Sakkaf as minister of agriculture. Muhammad Jawad Khalifa as minister of public health. Alan Toborian as minister of energy & water. Khaled Qabbani as minister of state. Tarek Mitri as minister of information. Muhammad al-Safadi as minister of economy & trade. Muhammad Feneish as minister of manpower. Jean Ogaspian as minister of state. Fawzy Salloukh as minister of foreign and expatriates' affairs. Bahiya al-Hariri as minister of education and higher education. Wael Abu Faaour as minister of state. Nassib Lahoud as minister of state. Tamam Sallam as minister of culture. Raymond Audi as minister the displaced persons. Yousuf Taqla as minister of state. Ibrahim Najjar as minister of justice. Muhammad Shatah as minister of finance. Mario Aoun as minister of social affairs. Antoine Karam as minister of environment. Ibrahim Shams al-Din as minister of state for administrative development affairs. Eli Marouni as minister of tourism. Ziyad Baroud as minister of interior and municipalities' affairs. Jibran Basel as minister of communications. 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. Hezbollah was allocated three seats in the Cabinet, but only one of them went to a Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah, 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 Hezbollah.

"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 Hezbollah.

"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 news, saying in Tehran that he hoped it would result in the strengthening of national unity among Lebanese and bring internal stability to their country.

Lebanon's newly appointed ministers expressed their eagerness over the weekend to address the different challenges facing the country. A 30-member national unity government was announced on Friday after almost five weeks of disputes over the distribution of portfolios.

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.

One of the main goals newly appointed Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar has set for himself is to separate to separate political issues from judicial ones.

"Separating between politics and judiciary is a vital matter; the Justice Ministry should be politics-free," Najjar said following a meeting with Premier Fouad Siniora Saturday.

"I am not a politician assigned to run the Justice Ministry ... I am here to suggest and introduce reforms," he added.

Siniora held a meeting with a group of ministers, including Najjar, Information Minister Tarek Mitri, and Finance Minister Mohammad Shatah at the Grand Serail.

On Sunday, Siniora received a series of phone calls congratulating him on the formation of the national unity Cabinet.

Among the callers were Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, Egyptian Premier Ahmad Nazif and his Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Also revealing plans for the upcoming period, Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud touched on security and electoral issues in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio station Saturday.

Baroud said the government should not be lenient with attempts by any political group to undermine state security. "It is high time we reach a stable security situation without making concessions at the expense of the right of Lebanese citizens to live in safety," he said.

Baroud stressed the need to come up with a security plan during next year's parliamentary elections. "This is a major challenge," he added.

The minister also said that elections should be "a gate toward reform and political stability in Lebanon."

Meanwhile, newly appointed Industry Minister Ghazi Zeaiter said he hoped the national unity government could cooperate with Parliament in implementing the remaining items of the Doha Agreement, which put an end to Lebanon's 18-month political crisis.

While the election of a president and the formation of the national unity government were fulfilled, implementing the Doha Agreement still requires the drafting of a new electoral law for the 2009 elections and the holding of national dialogue sponsored by President Michel Sleiman.

Zeaiter stressed the importance of adhering to the terms of the Doha deal, particularly with regards to the electoral law. "This government will work to address all issues objectively," he added.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Administrative Development Ibrahim Shamseddine told the Voice of Lebanon radio station Sunday that establishing diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria does not necessarily change the nature of relations between the two states.

"Direct diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria are a must ... We welcome this decision and hope it will be implemented according to international norms," Shamseddine said.

He also noted the need to discuss Hezbollah's weapons and said the upcoming parliamentary elections must be held on time and on the basis of a clear electoral law.

"The issue of Hezbollah's arms should be discussed during Cabinet sessions," he added.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon hailed the formation of a Lebanese national unity government tasked with resolving the country's worst political crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war.

"The secretary-general welcomes the announcement on the formation of a national unity government in Lebanon," his press office said in a statement.

"He believes that this important event reflects Lebanon's continuing emergence from the political crisis and the revitalization of its constitutional institutions," it added.

The government lineup was announced in a decree signed by Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, seven weeks after an accord which saved Lebanon from the brink of renewed civil war.

Ban called on the Lebanese "to continue working for the full implementation of the Doha Accord."

The accord between Lebanon's political rivals sealed in Doha on May 21 allocated 16 cabinet seats to the Western-backed parliamentary majority and 11 to the opposition led by Hezbollah, giving it veto powers.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese army moved on Friday into Bastara Farm, the only one of the occupied Shebaa Farms that the Israeli army evacuated when it pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, an AFP correspondent said.

Lebanese army vehicles and bulldozers could be seen moving for the first time into the farm, which lies some 300 meters (yards) away from other farms which Israel has occupied for more than 40 years.

A road has been reconstructed to link this new position to other Lebanese army posts in the southeast of the country.

Israel captured the 25-square-kilometre (10-square-mile) area of land on the Israel-Lebanon-Syria border as part of the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it along with the rest of the strategic plateau. Lebanon today claims sovereignty over the territory with Syrian approval.

A seven-point plan drawn up by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and adopted by the United Nations envisages placing the territory under UN administration while waiting for the three countries to resolve the issue.