
Judge Nawaf Salam who was appointed to form the government and become Lebanon's Prime Minister speaking at Baabda Palace on Jan. 14, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
Several political parties and figures in Lebanon have called Wednesday for a swift government formation by Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam.
Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Qabalan, close to Hezbollah and Amal movement, stated Wednesday that "Lebanon needs a government that ensures national unity and addresses its crises," the state-run National News Agency reported.
He also emphasized that the government’s formation should "strengthen Lebanon, not weaken it and that Lebanon’s sovereignty and unity are essential."
He further noted that "the government, depending on its formation, either places the country in a position of national strength or increases its weakness and fragility."
The Political Council of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) said in a statement Wednesday, after it held its regular meeting chaired by MP Gebran Bassil, that the council discussed FPM’s "participation in the government from all angles and confirmed its readiness to provide all possible facilitation to establish a government of reformists with a clear reformist and sovereign program.”
“There should be no discrimination or preference between the components, but rather fairness in the standards between the political and parliamentary forces, based on their popular representation and executive and reform capabilities,” FPM said.
“The council expressed hope that the government would be formed within a reasonable timeframe and that its ministers, statement, and actual program would create a positive shock that all Lebanese are eagerly awaiting,” the statement concluded.
'Let everyone put their hands in Aoun and Salam's'
Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Hassan Diab also said "let everyone put their hands in the hands of Presidents [Joseph] Aoun and [Nawaf] Salam so that they can form a government as soon as possible,” after a meeting with the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, on Wednesday, according to NNA.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam visited the Baabda presidential palace on Tuesday to brief President Joseph Aoun, who was elected on Jan. 9, on progress in forming a government to succeed that of Najib Mikati, who resigned following the legislative elections in May 2022.
The former International Court of Justice judge did not disclose a list of candidates or details during his remarks but assured that the process is "progressing well" and dismissed media reports on the distribution of ministerial portfolios as "speculation."
Diab served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from January 2020 to August 2020, and was tasked with leading Lebanon through the aftermath of widespread protests, the collapse of its economy, and the devastating explosion at the Beirut port in August 2020.
A former academic, Diab took office after the resignation of the previous government in response to mass demonstrations in late 2019.
He resigned after the Beirut explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, where over 220 people were killed, more than 6,500 were wounded and swathes of the capital were damaged after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at the port.
'Don't get lost in the sectarian maze'
Following a meeting with a delegation from the Constitutional Council at Baabda Palace on Wednesday, President Joseph Aoun felt that “one of the first positive signals we must send out to the world is the formation of the government as soon as possible.” He insisted on the need to avoid “any procrastination in the formation of the future cabinet,” refusing to let it “get lost in sectarian, confessional and political mazes.” “We are faced with a unique opportunity that we must seize, and to do so, we must rise above all narrow interests to facilitate the birth of the government and the launch of the work ahead of us,” he said.
He added: “One of the most important objectives of forming a government is to speed up the reconstruction of the areas that were damaged during the recent war [between Hezbollah and Israel]. I was elected to serve the people, not for the people to serve me.”