Beirut, regional players want Lebanon stable

Lebanon's presidency has announced the formation of a new national unity government, after rival political factions managed to hammer out their differences over the government line-up.

Naseer al-Omari, writer and political commentator said he does not “think that there is a lot of external interest to destabilize Lebanon by regional players” and “the government [in Beirut] has to restore that sense of stability. The world needs to see that Lebanon is stable.”

Politicians and ordinary people seem “to be genuine,” because “everybody has incentive to make the government work,” Omari argued.

The new government -- headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri -- includes 30 ministers from most Lebanese political factions, which have been in talks after the country held in May 2018 its first parliamentary elections in nine years.

Since the May 2015 election, the last Hariri government, which has been appointed in 2016, has been in office in a caretaker capacity.