Lebanon’s new government asked to resume bailout talks with IMF

Members of the new government pose for an official picture at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese Official Government/AP)

Lebanon’s new government held its first meeting with a call by the president to resume talks with the International Monetary Fund to help kick-start its recovery from one of the world’s worst economic crises in more than a century.

The 24-member Cabinet’s most pressing mission over the coming weeks will be to help improve conditions in the country of six million, including a million Syrian refugees.