Lebanon Finally Forms a New Government

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanon formed a new government Friday, officials said, ending 13 months of political deadlock that inflamed the worst economic and financial crisis in the country's history.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati signed a decree appointing the 24-member Cabinet of nonpartisan specialists, the officials said.

The breakthrough comes after a series of local and regional mediation efforts, coupled with mounting US and French pressure, on the leaders to form Lebanon's first fully functioning government in 13 months which is eagerly awaited by the Lebanese to save them from the worst economic and financial crisis in the country’s history.

Mikati said the 24-member Cabinet of non-partisan experts grants no side a "blocking third," or veto power.

The political stalemate has for more than a year left Lebanon without a fully empowered government, preventing a long-awaited solution to the series of crises, including an unprecedented economic depression that has pushed more than 70 percent of Lebanon’s 6 million population below the poverty line amid a crashing Lebanese pound that has lost more than 90 percent of its value since late 2019.