Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio made a visit to Lebanon on Monday, where he was due to hold talks with his Lebanese counterpart, Gibran Bassil and the United Nations UNIFIL peacekeeping mission, Italian general Stefano Del Col, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Di Maio's visit follows protests in central Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon on Sunday against the country's new prime minister, former education minister Hassan Diab, who the protesters want to step down.
The protesters say Diab is a member of the ruling elite that they blame for a severe economic crisis rooted in decades of widespread graft and mismanagement and have been marching against nationwide for months.