BEIRUT — In its first official meeting, after gaining the Parliament's vote of confidence last week, the Lebanese Cabinet approved the 2025 budget by decree and passed a bill to exempt those affected by the Israeli war from certain taxes and fees.

Nawaf Salam's government met Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Baabda Presidential Palace for a Cabinet session to address key issues, including administrative, security and financial appointments, as well as reforms, the state budget and tax measures for victims of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

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2025 budget and reforms

Following the Cabinet meeting, Salam announced that the 2025 budget was approved by decree. He specified that this approval was intended "above all to avoid any obstruction or delay in meeting public needs and providing services to citizens." "We could have taken the text back and announced that we were going to rework it, but we wanted to avoid band-aid solutions on the one hand. And, on the other, we don't have the luxury of time for such a reworking before lengthy discussions in Parliament," he added.

Salam stressed, that in parallel, the government had instructed Finance Minister Yassine Jaber to prepare "within a week, a draft law to review the taxes included in the budget, in order to mitigate their negative social and economic impacts on citizens."

The Industry Minister of Industry, Joe Issa al-Khoury, said after the session that this draft "conditions" the adoption of the budget.

Salam continued, "The main thing is that we are going to devote ourselves to preparing the 2026 budget, which will be one of development and reform, and on which you will be able to judge us — unlike the 2025 budget."

On X, MP Paula Yaacoubian, affiliated with Lebanon’s protest movement, said she would file an appeal against the draft budget with the Constitutional Council.

The budget proposal approved had been hastily drafted by the previous administration and sent to Parliament in late September. The proposal was criticized for failing to address reconstruction needs, especially after the violent Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut which could cost Lebanon billions of dollars, according to the World Bank. Former Finance Minister Youssef Khalil had urged its adoption by decree before leaving office, while Ibrahim Kanaan, head of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, had cautioned against this.

In addition, the prime minister emphasized the need to adhere to the reform clauses in the Taif agreement, which ended the Civil War in 1989. Salam also stressed the need to finalize the implementation of the Taif Agreement, which put an end to the civil war in 1989. This requires "the adoption of laws, while other points are already framed in existing laws, and we will proceed with the adoption of these texts in order of priority." He also indicated that agreement had been reached to "draw up a detailed list of the reforms required in each ministry and set a timetable for their implementation, within 30, 60 or 90 days, depending on priorities."

Salam added that a decision had been taken for Cabinet meetings to be held in a specific location, as stipulated in Article 65 of the Constitution, and not in the presidential palace or the Prime Minister's office, in order to emphasize that it is an institution independent of the president and the prime minister." "We will announce next week how today's decision will be implemented," he added.

Regarding administrative appointments, the Prime Minister announced the approval of a "transparent mechanism" and the formation of "organizational committees, with the Ministry of Administrative Reform and the Civil Service Council."

Visit to Saudi Arabia 

Following the meeting, Information Minister Paul Morcos said that President Joseph Aoun "briefed the Cabinet on his visit to Saudi Arabia, emphasizing the importance of this visit."

Aoun traveled to Riyadh for his first official foreign trip to improve the relationship between the two countries, which had been strained by years of regional tensions. He then went to Cairo for an extraordinary Arab summit on Gaza, where the final declaration had included a call for a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and the disarmament of the party.

According to Morcos, Aoun said that reforms were a Lebanese demand before being a foreign demand and emphasized that "Saudi Arabia is willing to help only if Lebanon" commits to applying them.

Morcos added that the president hinted at a second visit to Saudi Arabia after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, where he would be accompanied by several key ministers.

During his speech, Aoun also asserted that the Cabinet is "the reference" for decision-making, "and not the parties and religious communities." "We are here to make decisions, not to obstruct them," he concurred.

Finally, the president reminded the ministers of their commitment to confidentiality during the session.

Tax exemptions for war victims

Morcos also announced that a bill to exempt those affected by the Israeli war from specific taxes and fees was passed. 

The draft law provides tax exemptions, deadline extensions and other measures for war victims, which could affect the country’s fiscal revenue.

Other items on the 23-point agenda included forming a delegation to represent Lebanon at the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the U.N. in New York from March 10-21, 2025; approving a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for a wastewater treatment project at Lake Qaraoun; and accepting donations, including vehicles from the South Korean embassy for the Ministry of the Interior and fuel trucks from Qatar for the Ministry of Defense. The agenda also includes validating expenditures under the provisional twelfth rule, as Lebanon had not yet passed a budget for this year.

Among the other decisions approved by the government, Morcos listed a bill to delay the retirement age of diplomats, a loan from the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) to clean up Lake Qaraoun in the Bekaa, authorization for the Lebanese Army to recruit doctors, pharmacists, nurse technicians, medical assistants, administrative technicians and programmers, and the appointment of 36 officers specialized in various fields to the General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces (ISF).

The meeting was preceded by a private discussion between Aoun and Salam on the country’s political and regional developments, according to the National News Agency.

The Salam government was formed on Feb. 8, and Aoun was elected president on Jan. 9. Before his election, Lebanon had been without a president since October 2022, and Najib Mikati's government had been handling only routine affairs since May 2022.