The Christian-based Lebanese Forces Party, which has not been part of a Cabinet in the Land of the Cedars in more than five years, has entered the country’s newly announced government, constituting a major counterbalance to Hezbollah.
The party picked four ministers—including Foreign Affairs Minister Youssef Raji and Energy Minister Joseph Saddi—in the government of Lebanon’s new prime minister, Nawaf Salam. On Saturday he announced that he had formed the country’s first full-fledged government since 2022.
This development, which benefits internal forces hostile to Lebanon’s Shi’ite terrorists, follows years of political instability in the multiethnic and war-torn country. The Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah had exercised de facto control of Southern Lebanon for years, before it agreed to vacate the area in November.
Hezbollah and its close ally Amal, another Shi’ite movement, have five Cabinet ministers in Salam’s government, the same as in the previous non-caretaker government under former prime minister Najib Mikati, which collapsed in 2021.
The Amal-Hezbollah coalition also holds the key portfolio of finance, held by Hezbollah politician Yassin Jaber, and four other comparatively minor portfolios: Health, Labor, Environment and Administrative Development.
Under the current political constellation, Hezbollah and its allies are prevented from wielding a “blocking third” in the government, where a two-thirds vote is needed to pass some key decisions.
In a speech on Saturday, Salam vowed to implement the ceasefire agreement that in November ended the most recent war between Israel and Hezbollah and to make sure that Israel “withdraws from Lebanese territory until the last inch.” He also pledged to ensure reconstruction in areas that suffered destruction during the war.
Hezbollah was severely weakened during the war, which it entered on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas. Israel killed Hezbollah’s top command as well as thousands of its terrorists. Hezbollah accepted a ceasefire, whose terms it had previously rejected, under which it would pull back north of the Litani River.
The government’s formation followed an intervention by the United States.
Morgan Ortagus, deputy United States special envoy for Middle East peace, said in a speech in Beirut on Friday that Washington had “set clear red lines from the United States” that Hezbollah would not be “a part of the government,” the Associated Press reported. The comments drew backlash from many in Lebanon who saw them as meddling in the country’s internal affairs.
The U.S. embassy in Beirut welcomed the Cabinet announcement, saying it hoped it would rebuild state institutions and implement needed reforms.
