The Arab world's last living music legend Fairuz, who French president Emmanuel Macron is to visit Monday in Beirut, is a rare symbol of national unity in crisis-hit Lebanon.

Lebanese prime minister-designate Mustafa Adib vowed Monday to swiftly launch a reformist government and seek international financial assistance after the Beirut blast deepened a political and economic crisis.

Mustafa Adib, a little-known diplomat who was nominated to become Lebanon's new prime minister Monday, faces the nearly impossible challenge of embodying change after being picked by the political establishment.

It was a century ago on Sept. 1, 1920, that a French general, Henri Gouraud, stood on the porch of a Beirut palace surrounded by local politicians and religious leaders and declared the State of Greater Lebanon — the precursor of the modern state of Lebanon.

The current French president, Emmanuel Macron, is visiting Lebanon to mark the occasion, 100 years later. But the mood could not be more somber.

Lebanon's under-fire political leaders scrambled into action as French President Emmanuel Macron was expected Monday for a fresh visit aimed at pushing change in the crisis-hit country.

Lebanon named its envoy to Germany, Mustafa Adib, as the new premier Monday to steer the country through a deep crisis after the Beirut explosion compounded a sharp economic downturn.

The presidency made the announcement in a televised statement as Adib arrived at the palace in Baabda near Beirut to meet President Michel Aoun and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

The ISG expressed its solidarity with the Lebanese people after the explosion that caused numerous victims and severe damages to residential and commercial infrastructures and sites of cultural and religious heritage in Beirut on 4 August and extends its most heartfelt condolences to the residents of Beirut, the Group said in a joint statement on Sunday.

Dozens of Lebanon's main opposition groups and parties on Sunday announced a common position and plan to tackle the country's multiple crises.

President Michel Aoun on Sunday called for declaring Lebanon a “civil state,” in an address to the nation marking 100 years since the declaration of Greater Lebanon.

The State of Greater Lebanon was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon.

Lebanon's former ambassador to Germany Mustafa Adib was on Sunday tipped to become the country's new premier after his nomination was endorsed by ex-PMs Saad Hariri, Fouad Saniora, Najib Miqati and Tammam Salam.

The major blocs had said they would endorse the candidate chosen by Hariri and the ex-PMs.