U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator Amos Hochstein will travel to Lebanon Thursday to finalize the “historic agreement to establish a permanent maritime boundary between Lebanon and Israel,” the U.S. State Department said.

In Beirut, Hochstein will meet with President Michel Aoun, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Najib Mikati to “extend his gratitude to each for the consultative and open spirit demonstrated throughout the negotiations, the foundations of which were created under Speaker Berri’s leadership by the 2020 Framework,” the State Department said in a statement.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Wednesday at the Grand Serail with the newly-appointed Papal Ambassador to Lebanon, Paolo Borgia.

“The relations between Lebanon and the Vatican were reviewed during the meeting and the Holy See reiterated its keenness on Lebanon and its sons,” the National News Agency said.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati swiftly hit back Tuesday at remarks by Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil.

A statement issued by Mikati’s press office said the premier “regrets the tense remarks” of Bassil “at a critical political moment that requires cooperation among everyone, not the launching of arbitrary accusations and stances and the use of confrontational and provocative expressions.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Tuesday that the FPM “will exert more efforts” and “will give more hours for the attempt to avoid vacuum,” in reference to the stalled government formation process and the looming presidential vacuum.

“Those who think that the caretaker cabinet will assume the president’s powers are mistaken, seeing as this is a violation of the constitution,” Bassil said at a press conference after the weekly meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc.

The Lebanese Customs Administration announced Tuesday that around 160,000 captagon pills were seized Monday at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.

In a statement, Customs said the narcotics were seized in cooperation with the Airport Security Apparatus.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Tuesday at the Grand Serail with a World Bank delegation comprising the bank’s Vice President for Middle East and North Africa Ferid Belhaj and Jean-Christophe Carret, the bank’s Country Director for the Middle East Department (Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria).

Speaking after the meeting, Belhaj said the meeting was constructive and positive and that the World Bank is ready to offer Lebanon funding worth 300 to 500 million dollars for social aid and projects related to sustainable food and agriculture.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday stressed that “implementing unified standards in the formation of the government is the right gateway for producing an active government that can run the country’s affairs.”

“What’s currently happening contradicts with the principle of the unity of standards, seeing as the parties taking part in the government are the ones naming their ministers, but when the Free Patriotic Movement’s turn comes in the naming process, they (Mikati) insist on interference and picking the ministers instead of the political party concerned,” Aoun lamented, in a chat with journalists at the Baabda Palace.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim announced Tuesday that “despite everything that is being said, the efforts are still ongoing in an attempt to form the government.”

Ibrahim has been mediating between the parties, mainly PM-designate Najib Mikati and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, for several weeks now.

President Michel Aoun met Tuesday with Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali.

Ali said, in a press conference, before leaving Baabda, that Syria did not "cancel" a scheduled appointment with a Lebanese delegation, but rather apologized for not being able to receive the delegation on Wednesday because of "previously-scheduled appointments".

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati met Tuesday with President Michel Aoun in Baabda and left without making a statement.

Media reports said that the two leaders are not meeting to discuss the deadlocked government formation, but that Mikati is rather paying a farewell courtesy visit to the President, few days before the end of his term.