BEIRUT, 20 April 2005 — Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati created a new unity government yesterday to steer the troubled country toward May elections and establish a “new beginning” after two months of deep political crisis. Mikati said the government contained representatives from Lebanon’s diverse religious and political groups and included 14 mainly technocratic members, down from 30 ministers in the previous Cabinet.
The Cabinet, which received the cautious approval of the opposition, is made up of mostly new faces, with eight backed by pro-Syrians and five closer to the opposition plus Mikati. Mikati, a telecommunications tycoon close to Syrian President Bashar Assad, was named Friday after vowing to meet opposition demands for timely legislative elections and sacking security officials and the public prosecutor following the February assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
MP Ghinwa Jalloul, from the Hariri bloc, said the new government included “provocative” members, in an apparent reference to Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammud who has been accused of obstructing the inquiry into Hariri’s killing.
Lebanon’s exiled Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun told AFP that the formation of the new Cabinet was “positive,” but maintained that “the crisis will not be over before the elections.” After meeting President Emile Lahoud and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Mikati said the new Cabinet “groups all Lebanese factions.”
Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, Syria’s feared power broker in Lebanon, bid farewell to top leaders. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said a much-awaited report on Syria’s withdrawal was not finished and would be released next week.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the death Monday of ex-Minister Bassel Fleihan from wounds sustained in the Hariri blast “makes us more determined than ever to help the Lebanese people run their own affairs.”
“Free and fair democratic elections on time would help honor his memory.”
