Lebanon agrees unity cabinet to end political crisis

BEIRUT  - Lebanon announced a 30-member national unity government on Friday tasked with resolving the country’s worst political crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war.

The line-up was announced in a decree signed by President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, seven weeks after an accord which saved Lebanon from the brink of renewed civil war. The accord between Lebanon’s political rivals sealed in Doha on May 21 allocated 16 cabinet seats to the Western-backed parliamentary majority and 11 to the opposition led by Hezbollah, giving it veto powers.

“The government of national unity is the government of all the Lebanese,” Siniora told reporters at the presidential palace.

The Opposition took the coveted posts of Foreign Minister, Telecommunications Minister and Deputy Premier in the new cabinet, while the ruling bloc kept the finance Ministry.