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UN Welcomes 'Brighter Chapter' as Crisis-hit Lebanon Forms Government

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Presidency shows designate Prime Minister Nawaf Salam delivering a statement to the press at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut on February 8, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Presidency shows designate Prime Minister Nawaf Salam delivering a statement to the press at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut on February 8, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
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UN Welcomes 'Brighter Chapter' as Crisis-hit Lebanon Forms Government

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Presidency shows designate Prime Minister Nawaf Salam delivering a statement to the press at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut on February 8, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Presidency shows designate Prime Minister Nawaf Salam delivering a statement to the press at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut on February 8, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)

The United Nations welcomed the formation of a new government in Lebanon on Saturday, which ended more than two years under a caretaker cabinet.

"Today's government formation heralds a new and brighter chapter for Lebanon," the office of the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said in a statement.

Lebanon formed a new government on Saturday, following unusually direct US intervention in the process and in a step intended to bring the country closer to accessing reconstruction funds following a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Speaking to reporters at the presidential palace, new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the 24-member cabinet would prioritize financial reforms, reconstruction and the implementation of a United Nations resolution seen as a cornerstone to stability on the Lebanese border with Israel.

Salam said he hoped the politically diverse cabinet would "work in harmony".

"This government will seek to restore confidence between citizens and the state, between Lebanon and its Arab surroundings, and between Lebanon and the international community," he said.

Lebanon has been hit hard over the last half-decade by a financial collapse that impoverished large parts of the population, a cataclysmic explosion at the Beirut port and a more than year-long war between Israel and Hezbollah that destroyed swathes of the country.

Forming a cabinet was seen as an essential step to undertaking reforms that could open the door to a financing plan under the International Monetary Fund and accessing support from key Gulf countries to help rebuild destroyed areas.

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Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
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Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares's face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.
"I've been here for four hours and I haven't so much as touched my pension," said the 77-year-old, who did not wish to give his full name.

"The cash dispensers are under-stocked and the queues are long," he continued.

Since the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad last December, Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception.

Decades of punishing sanctions imposed on the Assad dynasty -- which the new authorities are seeking to have lifted -- have left about 90 percent of Syrians under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet.

Prior to his ousting, Assad's key ally Russia held a monopoly on printing banknotes. The new authorities have only announced once that they have received a shipment of banknotes from Moscow since Assad's overthrow.
In a country with about 1.25 million public sector employees, civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs to make withdrawals, capped at about 200,000 Syrian pounds, the equivalent on the black market of $20 per day.

In some cases, they have to take a day off just to wait for the cash.

"There are sick people, elderly... we can't continue like this," said Abu Fares.

'Meagre sums'
"There is a clear lack of cash, and for that reason we deactivate the ATMs at the end of the workday," an employee at a private bank told AFP, preferring not to give her name.

A haphazard queue of about 300 people stretches outside the Commercial Bank of Syria. Some are sitting on the ground.

Afraa Jumaa, a civil servant, said she spends most of the money she withdraws on the travel fare to get to and from the bank.

"The conditions are difficult and we need to withdraw our salaries as quickly as possible," said the 43-year-old.
"It's not acceptable that we have to spend days to withdraw meagre sums."

The local currency has plunged in value since the civil war erupted in 2011, prior to which the dollar was valued at 50 pounds.

Economist Georges Khouzam explained that foreign exchange vendors -- whose work was outlawed under Assad -- "deliberately reduced cash flows in Syrian pounds to provoke rapid fluctuations in the market and turn a profit".

Muntaha Abbas, a 37-year-old civil servant, had to return three times to withdraw her entire salary of 500,000 pounds.

"There are a lot of ATMs in Damascus, but very few of them work," she said.

After a five-hour wait, she was finally able to withdraw 200,000 pounds.

"Queues and more queues... our lives have become a series of queues," she lamented.