U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam (R).

BEIRUT — On Wednesday, June 4, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Lebanon’s politicians  to overcome their “deeply troubling” stalemate and elect a new president to help respond to the damaging fallout of civil war in neighboring Syria.

Kerry, on a brief visit to Beirut, also announced more aid to help Lebanon and other countries in the region that are struggling to cope with millions of Syrian refugees.

“Lebanon’s security for years has been of paramount concern to the United States, and that is why I have to say that the current political stalemate here in Lebanon is deeply troubling,” he said after meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 25, when Michel Suleiman’s six-year term expired. Attempts by politicians to pick a successor have foundered on longstanding divisions exacerbated by tensions over the Syrian war.

Salam’s government also faces widening budget deficits and a growing strain on services such as electricity, water, health and education from more than 1 million Syrian refugees in a country of 4 million.

“Lebanon needs and Lebanon deserves to have a fully empowered, fully functioning, complete government. We hope the Lebanese parliament will select a president quickly,” Kerry said.

The presidency, allocated to the Maronite Christian community under Lebanon’s sectarian division of power, is one of the three main political offices alongside the prime minister, a Sunni Muslim, and the parliamentary speaker, a Shi’a Muslim.

Kerry announced more than $290 million in additional aid for U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations working with the nearly 3 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

Some $51 million of the funds, the largest chunk of the aid, will go to helping Lebanon, which hosts the highest concentration of refugees as a percentage of population in the world.

Unlike some of Syria’s other neighbours, Lebanon does not have formal refugee camps, leaving many families to find refuge within host communities. More than $35 million of the additional funds will go to helping refugees in Jordan; $15 million to Turkey and the same amount to Iraq; while $4.5 million will support Egypt, the State Department said.

A State Department official had said earlier that Kerry would renew a commitment by the United States to develop the capabilities of the Lebanese army to secure its borders and restore calm in parts of the country.