US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale called on Lebanon’s leaders to “show sufficient flexibility” to form a government that undertakes fundamental reforms to contain a worsening economic crisis.
Mr Hale landed in Beirut on Tuesday for a two-day visit.
The first senior official to visit the country since Joe Biden became president said on Wednesday the US and its international partners “are greatly concerned” with Lebanon’s failure to advance its critical reform agenda.
“I visited Lebanon in December 2019. I visited again in August 2020. And I heard then widespread agreement among Lebanese leaders on the need to implement long overdue financial, economic, and governance reforms.
"Yet today, very little progress has been made,” Mr Hale said after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
“America and the international community are ready to help. But we can do nothing meaningful without a Lebanese partner,” he said.
Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government since the explosion that killed more than 200 people and destroyed large parts of the capital last August, forcing the resignation of caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab’s government.
The US envoy also met prime minister-designate Saad Hariri before the latter's visit to Russia to discuss economic assistance.
Mr Hariri is been at loggerheads with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun over the Cabinet's makeup and reform agenda.
Mr Hale is scheduled to meet Mr Diab and Mr Aoun on Thursday, two days after the president delayed Lebanon’s amendment of its maritime borders to claim an additional disputed area with Israel. The president argued that the proposal must be endorsed by Mr Diab’s caretaker government first.
Mr Diab is reluctant to convene his Cabinet, despite the constitution allowing for exceptional meetings to address urgent matters, and has called on the country's political leaders to swiftly form a Cabinet to tackle the economic crisis.
Mr Aoun's position delays Lebanon's official expansion of its maritime claims, a move that could have further complicate stalled UN-sponsored indirect negotiations with Israel.
The US-mediated talks were suspended late last year after the Lebanese delegation claimed an additional 1,340 square kilometres on top of an already disputed 860-square-kilometre area, based on a map that Lebanon sent to the UN in 2011.
