Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Tuesday in Ain el-Tineh with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

The 30-minute meeting tackled the general situations, especially the issue of the state budget and legislative files.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab held talks Tuesday in Baabda with President Michel Aoun over a host of issues.

Referring to the sea border negotiations with Israel, Bou Saab said the talks are “going in the right direction.”

Yes in Beirut this September, MIDDLE EAST CLEAN ENERGY 2022

Caretaker PM and PM-designate Najib Mikati stressed Monday that the constitution allows the caretaker cabinet to assume presidential powers in the event of a presidential void.

MP Simon Abi Ramia of the Free Patriotic Movement on Monday lashed out at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea over the latter’s speech on Sunday in which he launched a vehement attack on President Michel Aoun’s term.

“President Aoun does not need a certificate from a collaborator (or agent) with Israel in the 1980s, nor from a conspirator with the Syrian forces against the free areas in the early 1990s, nor from a subordinate to foreign dictates at all times,” Abi Ramia tweeted, referring to Geagea.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Monday tweeted about Lebanon’s 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended the country’s 15-year civil war.

“The National Reconciliation Accord (Taif Agreement), which was endorsed by the Lebanese under Arab and international sponsorship, is neither an illusion nor a mysterious riddle,” Bukhari tweeted.

MP Najat Aoun Saliba of the so-called change bloc has stressed that she is not running for president, because she respects “the will of the people” who elected her as MP.

“I will perform my role to the fullest,” she added, in an interview with Radio All of Lebanon.

Hezbollah is working on encouraging the efforts aimed at expediting the formation of the new government, the party’s senior official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said on Monday.

“The social and living cost crisis in Lebanon is aggravating and one of the reasons behind its worsening is the absence of a government enjoying full powers and characteristics,” Qaouq said.

The last meeting between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati was "one of their worst meetings" and has sent the discussions "back to square one," said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Berri told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that based on the outcome of the last meeting between Aoun and Mikati, he has decided not to interfere in the government formation.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday accused rival parties of "blocking the formation of a new government and preparing, as usual, to block the presidential election."