Ending a five-months-old political deadlock in Lebanaon, Syrian-backed opposition factions agreed to join a unity government proposed by their pro-Western rivals.
Partners of the Shiite Hezbollah-led opposition agreed Friday night on a complicated power sharing formula that gives Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri's coalition 15 seats in the cabinet, the opposition 10 seats, and 5 seats to nominees of President Michel Suleiman, who is seen as a neutral figure.
The cabinet will be announced after the opposition proposes its nominees, reports said Saturday.
In the country's closely-contested general elections in June, the Sunni-dominated March 14 ruling coalition overcame stiff resistance from Hezbollah-led coalition, winning 71 seats in the 128-member parliament.
Entrusted with the challenging task of forming a coalition cabinet and keeping the nation united, Hariri submitted in September to the President a list of his proposed 30-member cabinet, which was bitterly denounced by the Hezbollah-led opposition.
He abandoned efforts to form national unity government and resigned as Prime Minister-designate after failing to realize a consensus among the majority and minority factions on a cabinet line-up.
But within a week, the President re-designated Hariri as Prime Minister.
Reports say an improvement in relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria paved the way for a breakthrough in negotiations.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.