The US urged Lebanon’s new prime minister-designate, Najib Mikati, to form a government quicly to handle the country’s long crisis.

“The US renews its calls to quickly form a government that’s empowered and a government that’s also committed to implementing critical reforms,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Jalina Porter told reporters.

The designation of Mikati, Lebanon’s richest man and a symbol of the country’s corrupt oligarchy to many, was received with scepticism.
Mikati, the third politician to run for the role in a year, promised to establish an expert administration in line with a French roadmap that conditions a large aid package on reform and transparency.

In an interview with the An-Nahar newspaper, Mikati vowed his lineup would be “purely technocratic”.
The meetings with the parliamentary blocs on Tuesday are the customary first official step following the appointment of a new prime minister, but the high-stakes horse-trading has yet to begin.

The current caretaker government also describes itself as technocratic but each one of its members was endorsed by the political barons who have run the country for decades.