Hezbollah gains cabinet majority

Five months after Hezbollah and its allies brought down the Lebanese government, the Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, formed a new cabinet yesterday that gives the Iranian-backed militant group far more power.

The new cabinet gives Hezbollah and its allies 16 of 30 seats. The previous prime minister, Saad Hariri, who was backed by the US, was forced to resign in January after Hezbollah and its allies withdrew their ministers from the national unity government, and the country has been without a functioning government since then.