Prime Minister Najib Miqati called Thursday on the United Nations to intensify the international efforts to support Lebanon.

He asked U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka to urge the U.N. Security Council to address the Lebanese crisis, in its upcoming session next week.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday stressed to U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka that Lebanon is committed to holding the parliamentary elections on time.

“Lebanon is committed to working for holding the parliamentary election on time on May 15 and to continuing the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to approve the economic and financial recovery plan,” Aoun told Wronecka.

Thursday marked the handover of the Ministry of Public Health’s Central Drug Warehouse (CDW) in Qarantina, one year and a half after it was destroyed by the Beirut port explosions, WHO Lebanon said.

Early in 2020, WHO initiated the expansion of the CDW from 600 m3 to around 2,000 m3. However, the work was put on hold by the devastating explosions in August 2020. In response, a new plan was developed "aiming at fully reconstructing the warehouse and increasing the storage capacity to 8,000 m3, as well as modernizing the storage and distribution capacities of the warehouse."

French Transport Minister delegate Jean-Baptiste Djebbari arrived in Beirut on Thursday to donate buses to Lebanon.

Djebbari will sign with Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamiyeh a memorandum of understanding.

Lebanon’s central bank, known as the Banque du Liban (BDL), announced Wednesday that it has asked commercial banks to provide it with the names of the “politically exposed figures” who have failed to repatriate their bank transfers from abroad in the wake of the country’s historic financial crisis.

In a statement, BDL’s Special Investigation Commission said it had made the request following a meeting that was held on March 3, adding that the names of those who have complied should also be submitted to the central bank.

With support from the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the implementation of the one-year project “Livelihood Support in the Beqaa and North Lebanon targeting Syrian Refugees” has kicked off, the IOM said in a statement distributed by the U.N. Information Center in Lebanon.

Israeli army chief Aviv Kohavi arrived Wednesday in Bahrain for a historic first visit by an Israeli army commander to the tiny Gulf kingdom, the Israeli army said.

He was welcomed by Chief of Staff of the Bahraini Defense Force, Lieutenant General Theyab Bin Saqer al-Noaimi.

Hizbullah has deliberately let Israel know of the presence of air defense systems in its possession in Lebanon, Israeli media reports said.

Quoting the commanders of the Israeli army’s operations branch, an Israeli news website said the Iran-backed group had managed to bring the systems into Lebanon through Syria despite Israel’s numerous airstrikes on its arms shipments.

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib stressed Wednesday from Cairo that Lebanon is “determined to rise again,” urging the Arab countries to assist it in its efforts.

The Lebanese pound declined again, as it reached 23,000 against the dollar on Wednesday.

The LBP had been relatively stable since a central bank circular in January allowed banks to buy dollar banknotes from the BDL.