Lebanon's new Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Tuesday that he was reaching out to all political persuasions to help "rescue" his crisis-hit country ahead of talks aimed at forming a government.

After two years of a caretaker administration, Salam faces the difficult task of assembling a cabinet to pull the Mediterranean country out of an economic collapse.

The new government will also need to oversee the implementation of a fragile ceasefire, as well as reconstruction, after a war between Israel and Shiite militant group Hezbollah that ended in November.

After flying back from abroad to take up his post, Salam appeared to appeal to the Iran-backed group and its allies after they declined to back his nomination.

"My hands are extended to all to set off together on this mission of rescue, reform and rebuilding," he said in his first speech.

"I am not one of those who exclude, but those who unite," said the former presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

He spoke ahead of........

© Al Monitor