Former PM Saad Hariri congratulated on Saturday the new PM Tammam Salam on the formation of a cabinet, praising his patience and wisdom after a 10-month political vacuum in the country.

“I hope that the new government heralds well-beginning for Lebanon and the Lebanese, and that it is able to face the constitutional and national entitlements at this critical stage the nation is witnessing,” said Hariri.

The new government was announced on Saturday nearly 11 months after Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam's appointment, but it emerged that it is not a cabinet that distributes power equally between the rival March 8 and 14 camps and centrists as had previously been reported.

The March 14 camp obtained nine ministers in the new government, three of which went to the Phalange Party.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed on Saturday his confidence that the newly-formed cabinet will be able to meet constitutional deadlines and its national duties.

He said shortly after the formation of the new government: “The new cabinet should be able to stage the presidential elections on time and approve a new parliamentary electoral law.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam was not aware when he was appointed as premier-designate in April 2013 that his task will last nearly 11 months.

The process of forming a new government was met with local and regional obstacles, most notably the conflict in Syria and various conditions set by the rival March 8 and 14 camps.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam announced on Saturday the formation of a 24-minister cabinet, ten months and a week after his appointment.

The ministers have been distributed equally between the rival March 8 and 14 camps and centrists of President Michel Suleiman, Salam, and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.

Former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi accused on Saturday Hizbullah of obstructing efforts to form a cabinet and of obstructing the functioning of the state.

He said in a statement: “Hizbullah has become addicted to obstructing the functioning of the state and it sought to turn the Interior Ministry portfolio into an obstacle in forming a government.”

President Michel Suleiman has voiced his disappointment with the ongoing deadlock over the formation of a new government, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.

Informed sources told the daily that he had expressed to political factions that “he can no longer tolerate political maneuvers.”

A new agreement has reportedly been reached over the naming of a potential interior minister in a new government after the March 8 camp's rejection of former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi, said al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat led efforts late on Friday night to reach an agreement over naming Mustaqbal MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq instead of Rifi.

A soldier was wounded Friday evening when a hand grenade was hurled at an army post in the northern city of Tripoli.

“Unknown assailants lobbed a hand grenade at an army post in the al-Ghoraba area in Tripoli, which wounded a soldier in the leg,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed Friday his rejection of any president who might be in the service of any foreign “tutelage” and urged Speaker Nabih Berri to convince Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria and start implementing the Baabda Declaration.

“As the Mustaqbal Movement refuses to be at the image of Hizbullah, we refuse to be at the image of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or al-Nusra Front, and refuse any call to involve the movement and Sunnis in Lebanon in the war between Hizbullah and al-Qaida,” Hariri said in a speech via video link that was broadcast during a rally organized by the March 14 forces to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.