Lebanon's president asked former premier Saad Hariri to form the country's next government Thursday after he secured enough votes from lawmakers - bringing back an old name to lead the country out of its dire political and economic crises.

Hariri resigned from the post a year ago amid nationwide protests by a public angered by widespread corruption, mismanagement of resources and a flunking economy. In the year since, Lebanon's currency sank, losing nearly 80% of its value, while prices, unemployment and inflation soared. Lebanese have been unable to access their savings, as banks imposed informal capital controls fearing a run on deposits.

Four years after Donald Trump's election reframed how many nations interacted with the United States, the way that the world's foremost superpower moves forward after its presidential election stands to impact many geopolitical pressure points — whether the victor turns out to be Trump or his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.

From Iran to Cuba, from China to Israel, American involvement and influence on the international stage has evolved sharply since Trump took office in 2017. He swept away agreements with some nations, alienated longstanding allies and pulled out of multilateral obligations that he said didn't serve the interests of the United States.

Russia's foreign minister called for collective efforts Tuesday to prevent a large-scale war in the Persian Gulf and got strong support from all Security Council members except the United States, which called Iran the major culprit and urged that it be held accountable for supporting terrorists and destabilizing the region.

Sergey Lavrov told a high-level virtual council meeting that a worst case scenario was avoided earlier this year following the U.S. killing of Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani, and warned that "the situation remains fragile and could become dangerous and unpredictable again."

A top U.S. official recently visited Syria for rare, secret high-level talks on securing the return of two Americans missing in the war-torn country for years, the daughter of one of them said Monday.

The visit of Kash Patel, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and the top White House counterterrorism official, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

The International Monetary Fund said Monday that Lebanon’s economy is heading towards a contraction by 25%, compared with an estimated shrinkage of 12% in April -- one of the region's sharpest economic contractions this year.

"Lebanon needs a comprehensive reform program that tackles deep-rooted issues," the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia director Jihad Azour, who is an ex-Lebanese finance minister, said.

A year ago, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese took to the streets protesting taxes and a rapidly deteriorating economic crisis. A spontaneous and hopeful nationwide movement was born, denouncing an entire political establishment that had for decades pushed Lebanon toward collapse.

Kurdish-led authorities released on Thursday hundreds of militants from the Islamic State group imprisoned in northern Syria, as part of a general amnesty in the region controlled by the U.S.-backed fighters.

Amina Omar, the head of the Syrian National Council, told reporters that IS members who were released have "no blood on their hands" and have all repented joining IS at some point.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri met Thursday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker, a day after Lebanon began indirect negotiations with Israel over their disputed maritime border.

Schenker, the top American diplomat for the Middle East, did not speak to reporters after his meeting with Berri.

Lebanon hopes to resolve a maritime border dispute with Israel within a "reasonable time," its delegation head said at a first round of talks on Wednesday.

The unprecedented talks, which were held at a U.N. peacekeeping base in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura, mark a "first step in the thousand-mile march towards the demarcation" of the maritime frontier, Brigadier General Bassam Yassin was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the army after the session.

Hizbullah and the Amal Movement of Speaker Nabih Berri released a joint statement early Wednesday expressing reservations that the Lebanese team to the border talks with Israel includes civilians, calling for the delegation to be reformed so that it only includes members of the military.

"This harms Lebanon's position and interests... and amounts to giving in to the Israeli logic that seeks some form of normalization," they said.