‘End the humiliation’: Lebanon’s new cabinet holds first meeting

Lebanon’s newly formed government holds its first meeting to discuss ways of rescuing the country from one of its worst ever economic crises.

The meeting, during which a ministerial statement is to be drafted to be submitted to a confidence vote in parliament, opens in the presence of President Michel Aoun.

Aoun says in a statement he hopes the committee tasked with drafting the statement will include the pursuit of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Talks with the IMF on financial assistance are key to rescuing Lebanon, which defaulted on its debt last year and has since been sliding into poverty.

“We will tackle solutions to the fuel and medicine shortages in order to end the humiliation” to the population, Prime Minister Najib Mikati says during the meeting.