President Michel Aoun called the Higher Defense Council for an “urgent” meeting on January 21 at Baabda Presidential Palace.

Caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm announced on Tuesday that she had received a request from judicial authorities in Switzerland to cooperate on an inquiry into financial transfers made by the Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, media reports said.

Spokesperson of the Lebanese Higher Defense Council Brig. Gen Mahmoud al-Asmar warned on Tuesday of the latest alarming death rate in Lebanon as the result of coronavirus, noting that a decision to extend or not the lockdown is up to the government.

Lebanon is reeling under multiple crises including a deteriorating health sector and a shortage in medicines as a result of the exchange rate crisis, which also reflected on a shortage in infant milk formula strictly sold at pharmacies, Asharq el-Awsat reported on Tuesday.

A ship will on Monday set sail from the south coast of the UK bound for Lebanon with 100 armored patrol vehicles (Land Rover RWMIK) donated by the British Government to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), the British embassy said.

These vehicles, worth £1.5 million, will "further reinforce the stability on the Lebanese border with Syria and help the LAF to counter efforts by terrorists and smugglers to cross into the country," the embassy said in a statement.

Lebanon on Monday reported 53 new coronavirus deaths, a new record high daily death toll for the small country.

Caretaker Deputy PM and Defense Minister Zeina Akar on Monday held talks in Yarze with UNIFIL chief Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday reiterated his call for early parliamentary elections in the face of the country’s multiple and compounded crises.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday said Lebanon is enduring an “undeclared blockade” as a result of its commitment to its principles, stressing that the country will never relinquish its oil and gas rights.

A phone call between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman broke the political stalemate in the problematic Lebanese file, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.