Lebanon’s prime minister-designate has vowed to work on building a modern state in the crisis-hit country, saying his priorities will be to rebuild after the destruction caused by a lengthy war with Israel and work on pulling the small nation out of its historic economic meltdown.
Nawaf Salam was speaking on Tuesday after meeting Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, who himself took office last week.
With the nomination of Mr Salam and confirmation of Mr Aoun, Lebanon, which has been run by a caretaker administration, now has a new government-in-waiting for the first time in two years.
After the meeting, Mr Salam said he will not marginalise any side in Lebanon, an apparent reference to the Hezbollah militant group, which in past years opposed his appointment as prime minister and this year indicated its preference for another candidate.
Mr Salam, who is currently the head of the International Court of Justice, said he will work on spreading the state’s authority across all parts of the country.
On Monday he won the support of a majority of politicians, after which Mr Aoun formally asked him to form a new government.
Over the past years, Hezbollah and its allies have blocked Mr Salam from becoming prime minister, casting him as a US-backed candidate.
“The time has come to say ‘Enough’. Now is the time to start a new chapter,” said Mr Salam.
He added that people in Lebanon have suffered badly because of “the latest brutal Israeli aggression on Lebanon and because of the worst economic crisis and financial policies that made the Lebanese poor”.
Decades of corruption and political paralysis have left Lebanon’s banks barely functional, while electricity services are almost entirely in the hands of private diesel-run generator owners and fuel suppliers.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic further battered the economy, and the Beirut port explosion, one of the largest non-nuclear blasts ever recorded, badly damaged several neighbourhoods in the heart of the capital.
The premier added that he will work on spreading state authority across all parts of Lebanon through “its forces”.
Mr Salam said he will work on a programme that will help the country with a population of six million people, including one million Syrian refugees, out of its economic crisis that exploded into protests in October 2019.
Since the economic crisis began, successive governments have done little to implement reforms demanded by the international community that would lead to the release of billions of dollars of investments and loans by foreign donors.
“Both my hands are extended to all of you so that we all move forward in the mission of salvation, reforms and reconstruction,” Mr Salam said.
Neither he nor Mr Aoun, an army commander who was elected president last week, is considered part of the political class that ruled the country after the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
