Hussein Ibish, Columnist

Lebanon’s New Government Is Set Up to Fail

Hezbollah, Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s main backer, doesn’t want him to succeed.

January 23, 2020 at 12:32 PM UTC

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

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After more than three months of political wrangling amid the backdrop of massive street protests, Lebanon finally has a new government. But the cabinet assembled by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, almost entirely composed of Hezbollah’s allies, is unlikely to succeed.

Indeed, it may have been set up to fail by its own backers.