My government will meet your demands, vows Lebanese PM

A LEBANESE government was formed last night, breaking a months-long impasse amid ongoing mass protests against the country’s ruling elite.

Hassan Diab, the new prime minister, had struggled to form a government since being nominated in December.

Mr Diab vowed last night that his newly unveiled government would strive to meet the demands of a threemonth-old protest movement calling for radical change.

“This is a government that represents the aspirations of the demonstrators who have been mobilised nationwide for more than three months,” he said, moments after the line-up was read out at the presidential palace. 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”.

The move, which comes three months after Saad Hariri, the former prime minister, resigned, is unlikely to satisfy protesters. They have been calling for sweeping reforms and a government made up of independent technocrats that could deal with the country’s crippling economic and financial crisis, the worst this tiny Mediterranean country has faced in decades.

Mr Diab had initially said he would form a government of “independent experts” and not members of political parties. At least two of the new ministers were formerly ministers, in addition to Mr Diab who was an education minister after Hizbollah and its allies brought down the government in 2011.