BEIRUT, 20 July 2005 — Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Fuad Siniora unveiled his Cabinet yesterday which includes for the first time a member of the resistance group Hezbollah, regarded as terrorist by Washington. Siniora’s Cabinet, which was approved by President Emile Lahoud after three previous draft lineups had been rejected, is the first elected government since Syria ended its three-decade military presence in April.
“It is a coherent team ... chosen to overcome the challenges confronting Lebanon,” the prime minister-designate told reporters, saying he was proud to have Hezbollah in his Cabinet “It is excellent that Hezbollah is in the government ... it has a strong popular base and must be represented.” Siniora, a 62-year-old former finance minister who was a close ally of slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, also pledged that his new government would do everything it could to improve relations with neighboring Syria.
Ties with Damascus have taken a turn for the worse since Syria’s troop pullout and the May-June elections which gave anti-Syrian groups a majority in Parliament for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war. Siniora has pledged to try to rebuild national unity shaken by the February killing of Hariri, and to embark on sweeping reforms to revive the debt-laden economy.
In the weeks since his nomination last month, Siniora had been scrambling to form a new government in the face of the mounting political and economic tensions with Damascus, which have dominated Lebanon politically since the end of the civil war. Washington and Paris, the sponsors of UN Resolution 1559 calling for Syria’s withdrawal and Hezbollah’s disarmament, voiced concern over the delay in setting up a new government.
After failing to form a government of national unity and then a Cabinet of technocrats, Siniora said Friday he intended to form a government from a broad spectrum of parties including the pro-Syrian Hezbollah-Amal alliance.
Hezbollah representative Mohammed Fneish becomes energy minister in the new government while Shiite independent Fawzi Salukh becomes foreign minister.
The Shiite militia, which continues to be involved in sporadic clashes with Israel on the tense border, exclusively patrols the formerly Israeli-occupied south.
Its participation in the new government is likely to pose a problem for the international community which is demanding that Hezbollah’s militiamen — regarded in Lebanon as a legitimate resistance to Israel — give up their weapons.
