Lebanese Minister of Information Ziad Makari, March 11, 2022 at the Grand Serail. (Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT — After his appointment Thursday, the Mikati government’s new information minister, Ziad Makari met with the prime minister and President Michel Aoun Friday.
Here’s what we know:
• Makari is an engineer close to the Marada political party led by the Maronite leader Sleiman Frangieh.
• At the end of his meeting with Aoun, Makari said that “the difficult period the country is going through requires government action that can reduce the suffering of the Lebanese,” adding that “we must work rather than talk.”
• Makari then went to the grand serial where he met with Mikati. “I thanked the Prime Minister for his confidence,” he reiterated that he “made the decision to work rather than speak.”
• He added that the handover ceremony with his predecessor, Education Minister and interim Information Minister Abbas Halabi, will take place Monday at the ministry’s Beirut headquarters.
• Mikati notified the cabinet of Makari’s appointment at its Thursday meeting in Baabda, , three months after Georges Kurdahi’s resignation – against the backdrop of Lebanon’s diplomatic crisis with Gulf countries stemming from comments he had made before he was appointed on Saudi Arabia's role in the war in Yemen.