Visiting U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus has said that the U.S. wants “the same thing that President (Joseph) Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and even (Speaker) Nabih Berri want, which is a strong and independent and sovereign Lebanon.”

“We don’t want Lebanon controlled by anybody but the state and its people, and I think the people who truly care about Lebanon, the people who truly care about Lebanese people are looking to strengthen the state and its institutions, and not to give power to outside forces that continue to disrupt Lebanon,” Ortagus said in an interview with the This Is Beirut news portal.