Lebanon’s parliament green-lights new cabinet lineup

ISTANBUL

Lebanon’s parliament on Wednesday approved a new cabinet lineup headed by Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

The new government reportedly won the approval of 87 out of 92 lawmakers who attended the vote session.

In mid-December, Hariri proposed a 30-member cabinet lineup that included representatives from the country’s main political groupings.

Hariri, a Sunni-Muslim politician who leads Lebanon’s Future Movement, was appointed to the premiership last month following the election in October of President Michel Aoun.

Aoun’s assumption of the presidency ended a two-and-a-half-year political standoff that had paralyzed Lebanon’s domestic political arena and left the country without a president.

In recent years, Lebanon has remained largely divided between the "March 14" alliance, which backs the armed opposition in next-door Syria, and the "March 8" alliance, which includes Hezbollah and supports Syria’s Assad regime.

A third, centrist bloc, meanwhile, is led by Druze politician Walid Jumblatt and former PM Najib Mikati.

In 1943, Lebanon’s Muslims and Christians agreed to distribute the country’s three most important political posts between them.

According to an unwritten National Charter that remains in effect until today, the president (who serves for a non-renewable six-year term) should be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.

Reporting by Eman Nassar; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat