By RIA Novosti,
Beirut : Lebanon’s prime minister, Fouad Siniora, will announce on Saturday the composition of a new national unity government, the Al Jazeera television channel said.
Under an Arab League-sponsored agreement, the new Cabinet will include 16 ministers from the parliamentary majority, 11 from the opposition and three more ministers will be appointed by the president.
“The opposition and the parliamentary majority have reached an agreement on the distribution of ministerial posts in the national unity government,” the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera said.
The main aim of the new Cabinet will be to prepare for parliamentary elections in Lebanon.
In May, Lebanon saw an end to its 18-month political crisis after the Western-backed coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition reached a deal brokered in Qatar.
Lebanon’s parliament elected army commander General Michel Suleiman as the country’s president last Sunday. His candidacy was backed 118 votes out of 127.
Prior to the deal, violent clashes that broke out between the supporters of the pro-Western government and Hezbollah-led opposition in early May left more than 80 people dead and about 200 wounded.
Lebanon’s political stalemate began in late 2006 when pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora during a power struggle. The U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition spent over a year deadlocked and unable to elect a president.