Crisis-hit Lebanon names new government to fill three-month power vacuum
- New cabinet promptly scorned by protesters and faces immense task of saving collapsing economy
- Government now comprises little-known figures, many of them academics and former advisers
Lebanon ended a painful wait on Tuesday by unveiling a new cabinet line-up, but the government was promptly scorned by protesters and faces the Herculean task of saving a collapsing economy.
More than a month after he was designated with backing from the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah and nearly three after his predecessor Saad Hariri resigned under pressure from the street, Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s cabinet of 20 ministers was announced.
The academic and former education minister, who was little-known in Lebanon until last month, insisted in his first comments as premier that his cabinet was a technocratic one that would strive to meet protesters’ demands.
“This is a government that represents the aspirations of the demonstrators who have been mobilised nationwide for more than three months,” he said.
He said his government “will strive to meet their demands for an independent judiciary, for the recovery of embezzled funds, for the fight against illegal gains”.
