Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that the June 14 presidential election session will be held and that all scenarios will be possible during it, in remarks to his visitors published Friday in al-Akhbar newspaper.

Asked about the Democratic Gathering’s announcement that it would vote for Jihad Azour, Berri said that he was told Monday that the Gathering would cast blank votes, voicing surprise over the new stance.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Friday those who don't want to vote for one of the two competing presidential candidates in June 14 session of participating in keeping the presidential vacuum.

"Those who want real elections must choose one of the two candidates, otherwise they'd be voting for presidential vacuum," Geagea said.

The Democratic Gathering bloc of the Progressive Socialist Party has officially nominated ex-minister Jihad Azour for the presidency, noting that “ex-MP Walid Jumblat was the first to propose his nomination as part of a package of names that he discussed with the various political forces.”

Jumblat’s aim was to reach “consensus and end the approach of confrontation,” the bloc said in a statement issued after a meeting in Clemenceau attended by Jumblat and his son MP Taymour Jumblat.

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Aroldo Lázaro has chaired a regular Tripartite meeting with senior officers of the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israeli army at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura.

“During the last couple of months, there have been a number of concerning developments along the Blue Line” he said. “Despite these events, active engagement has contributed to the prevention of potential escalation and helped maintain stability.”

Deaths in Lebanese prisons have nearly doubled in 2022 compared to 2018, Amnesty International said in a statement, citing possible factors such as prison officials’ misconduct or negligence, overcrowding, lack of adequate resources and impunity for ill-treatment.

"The sharp increase in custodial deaths must be a wake-up call to the Lebanese government that their prisons need urgent and drastic reform," Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Aya Majzoub said.

The Ukrainian military’s long-anticipated counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces has begun, opening a phase in the war aimed at restoring Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and retaining Western support in the war, four members of Ukraine’s armed forces said.

Ukraine’s troops intensified their attacks on the front line in the country’s southeast, the four sources told the Washington Post.

Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc said Thursday that its MPs will attend the presidential election session on June 14 and will vote for Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had also affirmed that his bloc will vote for Franjieh.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said he does not rule out that the 12th presidential election session might be “worse” than the previous sessions through blocking the first round’s quorum or boycotting the session altogether.

“The circumstances are appropriate, there is no need for boycott and we’re before two candidates with clear characteristics who enjoy the needed conditions and the support of some blocs. That’s why it is necessary to head to open-ended electoral sessions until the aspired result is reached,” Geagea said in an interview.

France has no presidential candidate for Lebanon, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told her Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib Thursday in a meeting in Riyadh.

"All what France cares about is for a president to be elected," Colonna told Bou Habib.

Ex-president Michel Aoun has lashed out at some newspapers, especially Annahar and Nidaa al-Watan, accusing them of publishing “lies” about his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

In a statement, Aoun’s press office said the former president “did not request a mediation or support for the position of the Free Patriotic Movement leader.”