In his first speech in the role on Tuesday, Salam said he was reaching out across the political spectrum after winning the backing of more than half of Lebanon’s parliamentarians.

“My hands are extended to all to set off together on this mission,” said Salam, who was serving as president of the International Court of Justice before his designation as prime minister.

“I am not of those who exclude but those who unite,” he said, calling for a “new chapter” in Lebanon.

The newly elected president, Joseph Aoun, asked him to form a new government on Monday.

Salam’s nomination highlights the weakened position of Iran-backed Hezbollah after a devastating war with Israel and the toppling of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month.

Hezbollah had supported caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to remain in office.

Salam said he would “extend the authority of the Lebanese state across all its territory” and “work seriously to completely implement UN Resolution 1701”, which calls for Hezbollah to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Referring to Israel, Salam said he would work to “impose the complete withdrawal of the enemy from the last occupied inch of our land”.

In a country grappling with its worst financial crisis since 2019, he pledged to work towards forming a government that could “build a modern and productive economy”.

In religiously diverse Lebanon, nominating a premier does not guarantee a new government will be formed imminently.

The process has previously taken weeks or even months due to deep political divisions and horse-trading.

But Salam’s designation as prime minister is viewed with hope by some after the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, which killed 4,000 people and injured more than 16,000. A United States-brokered, 60-day truce came into effect in November.

The announcement on Monday reflects the weakened position of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, which wanted caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to keep the job, following its devastating war with Israel and the toppling of the group’s ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month.

The election last week of army commander General Aoun as head of state, a choice backed by the United States, also showed the shift in Lebanon’s sectarian political landscape, in which Hezbollah had long held decisive sway.

His election ended a two-year power vacuum and revived hopes of lifting war-battered Lebanon out of economic crisis.

The eastern Mediterranean country has been run by a caretaker government since November 2022.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian, held consultations over the choice of prime minister with parliament’s 128 MPs on Monday.

Salam had secured the backing of 78 of the MPs by Monday afternoon, with nine endorsing Mikati.

Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the parliament speaker a Shia Muslim.

Salam’s  backers view judge and former ambassador Salam as an impartial figure able to carry out much-needed reforms – in contrast to Mikati, who is regarded by critics as being under Hezbollah’s influence.

MP Georges Adwan of the Christian party the Lebanese Forces said after meeting Aoun and endorsing Salam that it was time for Hezbollah to focus on “political work”.

“The era of weapons is over,” Adwan told reporters.

Hezbollah emerged from a brutal war against Israel this autumn severely weakened.

Under a ceasefire deal, the group must pull its fighters from areas of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border as the national army – until last week under Aoun’s command – and UN peacekeepers deploy there.

Hezbollah also lost a key ally in neighbouring Syria when rebel fighters overthrew al-Assad last month.

Senior Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad said the Iran-backed group’s opponents were seeking its fragmentation and exclusion from power in Lebanon.

Speaking at the presidential palace after Hezbollah MPs had met with Aoun, Raad said his group had “extended its hand” by helping to secure the president’s election as Lebanon’s president last week, only to find the “hand cut off”.