Avedis Gidanian (left) and Jean Oghassabian (Photo: Hay Dzayn)
Avedis Gidanian of the ARF Appointed State Minister of Tourism
BEIRUT, Lebanon (Armenian Weekly)—The formation of a new Lebanese government—which will be headed by Saad Hariri—was announced on December 18, which includes two members of the Lebanese-Armenian community.
Armenians Avedis Gidanian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and former Minister of State for Administrative Development Jean Oghassabian are a part of the new Cabinet, according to Armenia’s Hay Dzayn news outlet. Gidanian was appointed State Minister of Tourism, while Oghassabian will likely head the newly-created State Ministry for Women’s Affairs.
The four key ministerial portfolios—the Finance Minister, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Defense Ministry, and the Interior Ministry—were given to Ali Hasan Khalil, Gebran Bassil, Yaacoub Sarraf, and Nouhad Machnouk, respectively, according to Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper.
Hariri described his Cabinet as a national consensus government, underlining that it will “exert efforts during its short-term,â€
