Lebanon’s new prime minister on Saturday formed the country’s first full-fledged government since 2022.

President Joseph Aoun announced in a statement that he had accepted the resignation of the former caretaker government and signed a decree forming the new government with new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Salam, a diplomat and former president of the International Court of Justice, vowed to “restore confidence between citizens and the state, between Lebanon and its Arab surroundings, and between Lebanon and the international community” and to implement reforms needed to bring the country out of an extended economic crisis.

“Reform is the only path to a true salvation,” he said in a speech on Saturday.

He also promised to follow up on the implementation of a ceasefire agreement that ended the most recent war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah in late November and to ensure that Israeli forces “withdraw from Lebanese territory until the last inch.”

He pledged to ensure reconstruction in areas that suffered destruction during the war.

Salam’s cabinet of 24 ministers, split evenly between Christian and Muslim sects, was formed less than a month after he was appointed and comes at a time when Lebanon is scrambling to rebuild its battered southern region and maintain security along its borders.

Though Hezbollah did not endorse Salam as prime minister, the group did engage in negotiations with the new prime minister over the Shiite Muslim seats in government, as per Lebanon’s power-sharing system.

That was despite comments by US envoy Morgan Ortagus, who said in a speech in Beirut Friday that Washington had “set clear red lines from the United States” and that Hezbollah would not be “a part of the government.”

The comments drew backlash from many in Lebanon who saw them as meddling in internal Lebanese affairs. (AP)