Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Friday commented on the formation of the new government led by Najib Miqati.

“Unfortunately, we witnessed a year of delay that could have spared the Lebanese a lot of pain,” Bassil tweeted, a few hours after the cabinet was formed.

President Aoun assured Friday that "the new government will begin addressing the concerns of the Lebanese.”

“We will get out of Hell and rise from the abyss,” Aoun said to Annahar newspaper, adding that “we are living under siege, because of (Syrian) displacement and sanctions.”

Lebanon's new Prime Minister Najib Miqati pledged Friday to do everything in his power to halt the country's dramatic economic collapse, urging fractious politicians to work together after a new government was announced -- the first in over a year.

Holding back tears, Miqati, one of the richest men in the country, spoke about Lebanese mothers who cannot feed their children, and students whose parents can no longer afford to send them to school.

The line-up of Najib Miqati’s 24-minister government was announced on Friday, 45 days after the veteran politician and Lebanon’s richest man was tasked with putting together a new cabinet and more than a year after the previous government’s resignation.

Below is the full line-up as announced by the secretary general of the council of ministers:

The new Lebanese government was formed on Friday, more than a year after the resignation of Hassan Diab’s cabinet and 45 days after Najib Miqati was tasked with putting together a new government.

President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Najib Miqati “have signed the decree of the new government’s formation in the presence of Speaker Nabih Berri,” the Presidency announced.

President Michel Aoun met Thursday with caretaker Minister of Energy Raymond Ghajar.

The latter briefed Aoun on the talks he held in The Amman meeting to import gas and electricity to Lebanon through Syria.

The new cabinet will be formed “within hours,” TV networks said on Friday.

“PM-designate (Najib) Miqati informed me minutes ago that things have literally been finalized and that the cabinet will be formed before or after the Friday prayer,” Lebanese journalist Abbas Daher told al-Jadeed TV Friday morning.

Lebanon's long-awaited ration card plan was launched Thursday by caretaker Economy Minister Raoul Nehme and caretaker Social Affairs Minister Ramzi Msharrafiyeh.

The past hours witnessed many political contacts but no positive progress was achieved concerning the government formation, sources said.

The Saudi and Nigerian interior ministries have thwarted an attempt by a network linked to Lebanon’s Hizbullah to smuggle 451,807 amphetamine tablets into Saudi Arabia, the Saudi ministry said on Thursday.

The security spokesman of the Saudi interior ministry, Colonel Talal al-Shalhoub, stated that the drug bust followed “proactive security follow-up of the activities of criminal networks that smuggle drugs into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”