French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Friday urged Lebanon to swiftly elect a new president or risk plunging the poverty-stricken country into a deeper political crisis.
Colonna's remarks in Beirut came after Lebanon's divided parliament twice failed to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, with no majority candidate in the running. It took two years for lawmakers to reach a settlement and vote Aoun into power in 2016. Meanwhile, Lebanon's government has been functioning under a limited caretaker capacity for months as political parties struggle to agree on a new leadership lineup.
