Lebanon. Najib Mikati Has Formed a New Lebanese Government (Michael Young, Carnegie Middle East Center)

After more than a year of waiting, Lebanon has a new government. The new prime minister, Najib Mikati, succeeded where his two predecessors, Mustapha Adib and Saad al-Hariri, failed. President Michel Aoun and Mikati signed the official documents after last-minute efforts to remove the final obstacles that had blocked the process, including who would become economics minister and who would be the two Christian ministers not aligned with Aoun and his son in law Gebran Bassil. This last point was important as it denied the two men a sufficient number of ministers in the cabinet of 24 to hold veto power over the agenda, as well as the latitude to bring it down in the event of a collective resignation of their ministers.

Najib Mikati Has Formed a New Lebanese Government – Carnegie Middle East Center – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (carnegie-mec.org)