Former PM regains post in new Lebanon government

Lebanon's president on May 28 appointed Fouad Siniora to head a national unity government agreed under a deal to end 18 months of political conflict. President Michel Suleiman asked Siniora, who has strong US backing, to form the cabinet that will govern until a parliamentary election in 2009. The Hezbollah-led opposition is guaranteed veto power in the new government under the Qatar-mediated deal that ended the crisis which had pushed Lebanon to the brink of another civil war. The constitution requires the president, who was elected by parliament on May 25, to appoint the candidate backed by the largest number of members of parliament (MPs). MPs informed Suleiman of their preferences earlier that day. The US-backed parliamentary majority bloc had already declared its support for Siniora, determining the outcome in advance. The post must be filled by a Sunni, according to Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system. Siniora, who won the backing of 68 of parliament's 127 members, had led the government through the political conflict that culminated in the fighting that killed 81 people. The prime minister since July 2005, and finance minister in the government of Rafik al-Hariri during much of the civil war period, Siniora, 65, was frequently the target of opposition enmity. As a finance minister, he was depicted by opponents as a US puppet. The opposition declared Siniora's last cabinet illegitimate in November 2006 after all its Shia ministers quit in protest at the governing coalition's refusal to meet its demand for veto power. Under the Doha agreement, the opposition is guaranteed 11 seats in a new cabinet of 30 -- the one-third plus one it needs to block decisions. The ruling coalition yielded to the opposition's demand after Hezbollah and its allies routed their rivals in a military campaign this month.