US diplomacy called yesterday Monday for a new president to be elected in Lebanon to “unite the country and immediately implement the reforms needed to get the economy out of the crisis.”

The State Department’s appeal to the Middle Eastern country’s political leaders admonishes them not to “put their personal interests and ambitions above the interests of their country and people.”

Lebanon needs a president who is not “corrupt”, continues the statement signed by the US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. It is also emphasized that the solution to the political and economic crisis in Lebanon can only come “from within” the country, not “from the international community”.

Lebanon is experiencing a power vacuum after President Michel Aoun’s term ends on October 31, 2022, with no agreement between deeply divided political forces on his successor.

The political crisis has exacerbated Lebanon’s economic withering, which is experiencing one of the world’s worst crises since 1850, according to the World Bank.