Nabih Berri heads the Lebanese Parliament for the seventh time

Shafaq News/ The new Lebanese Parliament held on Tuesday its first session and chose the country's longtime parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, for a seventh four-year term.

Berri's reelection was guaranteed; he took 65 votes out of 128.

Berri, 84, heads the Amal Movement and has been a close ally of the Shi'ite Hezbollah since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

The new Parliament is deeply divided, with no alliance holding majority seats in the legislature. However, in the 2018 elections, The Hezbollah group and its allies won the majority. Now, they hold 61 seats — four short of an absolute majority.

Ahead of the session, some of the 13 independents and new legislators gathered outside Beirut's port — the scene of a massive explosion in August 2020 that killed more than 200 people — and met with families of the victims who perished in the blast. After the meeting, they walked to Parliament, surrounded by hundreds of supporters.