French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday the failure to form a new Lebanese government was a terrible incident as he criticized the country's entire political class.
Earlier on Thursday, Saad Hariri abandoned his effort to form a new government, dimming hopes of a cabinet being agreed any time soon to start rescuing the country from financial meltdown.
“It is clear we will not be able to agree with his Excellency," Hariri said after meeting President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace for barely 20 minutes. "That is why I excuse myself from government formation and God help the country."
Hariri said Aoun had requested fundamental changes to a cabinet line-up he had presented to him on Wednesday.
"It is only logical that the prime minister draws his conclusions," Le Drian told reporters at the United Nations in New York.
"It is yet another terrible incident... There is a total inability of the Lebanese leaders to find a solution to the crisis that they have created," he added.
