Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stressed on Tuesday that Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s new cabinet was formed after receiving a Syrian green light.

“It is obvious that the formation of the government came after full coordination” with Damascus, Gemayel told LBC TV network. “Syria will take advantage of it (the cabinet) to consolidate itself and use it as a tool in its foreign contacts or to confront the challenges that it is currently facing.”

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the formation of the new Lebanese cabinet expressing hope that it will be able to address the economic, political and security challenges facing the country.

“The Secretary-General believes that the formation today of a new cabinet in Lebanon, following months of consultations … is an important step toward establishing a functional, executive government in Lebanon,” said a statement issued by his spokesperson on Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri has unveiled that he decided to give up a Shiite minister from his share in the new cabinet without consulting any of his allies despite media reports contradicting his remarks.

“I got the idea on my way to the presidential palace. Eventually I lost a minister but won Lebanon,” Berri told An Nahar daily on Tuesday.

National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblat said that the new majority proved that it can form a government, noting that it can pass the test and confront the economic and social problems to provide citizens with stability.

“We proved to March 14 forces that we can govern the country, and they have to admit it,” Jumblat told the pan-Arab al-Jazeera news channel on Monday night.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati traveled to Mecca on Tuesday for Omra but he is scheduled to return the same day to attend the new cabinet’s photo taking session that will take place at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

Media reports said Miqati’s visit to Saudi Arabia is not an official trip and is only aimed at performing the Omra.

Iran has congratulated Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati on his new government, in which Hizbullah and its allies hold the majority, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday.

"In a telephone conversation, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi congratulated Miqati and the Lebanese people on the formation of the new government," IRNA said.

Sources close to President Michel Suleiman have stressed that Najib Miqati’s cabinet is a “consensual government” that allows the head of state, the premier and the leader of the National Struggle Front to push it towards centrism.

The sources told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published Tuesday that the cabinet is consensual and allows Suleiman, Miqati and Walid Jumblat “to put their centrist touches on it.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that he wouldn’t congratulate Lebanon on the formation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s cabinet.

“Everyone is going forward except for governments in Lebanon that go backwards,” Geagea said in a brief remark to al-Joumhouria daily on Tuesday.

The March 14 forces dubbed Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet a “confrontational government” that will seek to consolidate itself against the repercussions of the indictment that will be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

A high-ranking March 14 source told An Nahar newspaper published Tuesday that “the government of Hizbullah” was formed “given the critical situation in Syria.”

A key U.S. lawmaker called Monday for cutting all U.S. aid to Lebanon's new government, in which Hizbullah and its allies hold the majority, and to any Palestinian government in which Hamas is a partner.

"The U.S. should immediately cut off assistance to the Lebanese government as long as any violent extremist group designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations participates in it," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican and frequent White House critic.