Lebanese Parliament Votes for New Government

The Lebanese Parliament expressed its confidence in the country’s new government on Wednesday, with 95 of 128 parliamentarians voting for the administration, headed by Nawaf Salam, who was designated in mid-January.

Although Salam, the former International Court of Justice president, said that only Lebanon’s armed forces should defend the country, the Hezbollah terror organization’s bloc in Parliament supported his cabinet appointments, the Associated Press reported. (Hezbollah did not support his prime ministership.)

Tammy Bruce, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, congratulated both Salam and Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president.

“For too long, the Lebanese people were denied a governing body that could unite the country and rebuild Lebanese state institutions,” Bruce stated. “America is partnering with Lebanon’s new government as it enacts urgently needed economic reforms, and we will continue our support for the Lebanese Armed Forces as it implements the cessation of hostilities.”

During Salam’s tenure as Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations, he voted to condemn Israel 210 times in 11 years. He has accused the “supreme Zionist leadership” of pursuing a policy of “ethnic cleansing” via “terrorism and organized massacres,” and on several occasions, he has said that Israel is an “apartheid” state.

Israel and Hezbollah entered a ceasefire agreement, which the terror organization has violated repeatedly, on Nov. 27.