Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on his Facebook official account on Friday that he had requested support from Egypt in the field of natural gas to urgently generate electricity.

Lebanon is grappling with crippling economic and fuel crises and has struggled with meagre supplies of state-generated power for months.

There has been little progress since PM Mikati’s government was appointed in September after more than a year of political deadlock that compounded the crisis.

Mikati’s government has been in paralysis since a row over the lead investigator into a fatal explosion at Beirut port last year flared during a cabinet meeting on Oct. 12. The cabinet has not met since then.

Subsidies have been cut back on almost all goods including fuel and medicine, pushing up prices as basic services such as healthcare crumble.

The cabinet’s main focus was on a revival of talks with the International Monetary Fund, needed to unlock foreign aid. But an agreement on vital financial figures, a requirement to start negotiations, has not been reached.