Lebanon forms new government after two-year caretaker cabinet

Lebanon's new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam formed a new government, the first since 2022.

President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on Saturday that he had accepted the resignation of former caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and signed a decree with Salam to form the new government of 24 ministers.

Aoun was elected president on January 9, ending more than two years of a presidential vacuum in Lebanon due to political disagreements.

Days after his election, Aoun invited Salam, a judge with the International Court of Justice, to form a new government.

Lebanon's prime minister said his newly formed cabinet would strive to be a "government of reform and salvation" and pledged to rebuild trust with the international community after a devastating Israeli war on the Mediterranean country.

"I hope this will be a government of reform and salvation," Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a televised statement moments after his cabinet was announced, adding it will strive to "restore trust between citizens and the state, between Lebanon and its Arab surrounding, and between Lebanon and the international community".