President Michel Aoun on Thursday met in Baabda with a delegation from Lazard, which is one of the world's leading financial advisory and asset management firms.

“He discussed with them the need to continue their advisory mission for the Lebanese state, as part of preparing for the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund,” the Presidency said.

The head of the finance parliamentary committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, on Thursday said that the central bank’s decision to extend the implementation of Decree 151 is an attempt to “anesthetize the depositors.”

“It is unacceptable to continue the game of winning time, seeing as Decree 151 was issued more than a year and a half ago, when the dollar exchange rate was around LBP 7,000. The dollar exchange rate reached LBP 24,000 and depositors continued to withdraw their money at the LBP 3,900 rate, which amounts to an 85% veiled haircut,” Kanaan added.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati met Thursday with his Jordanian counterpart Bisher al-Khasawneh at the Grand Serail.

Al-Khasawneh arrived yesterday, Wednesday, at Beirut airport heading a Jordanian ministerial delegation and was greeted by Miqati and Jordanian ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Hadid.

European Union Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf on Wednesday held a meeting with Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

"Tour d'horizon with Foreign Minister Bou Habib on areas of joint concern: addressing the economic crisis, delivering basic services to LB citizens, governance reforms, elections, refugees," Tarraf tweeted after the talks.

A French foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday said Paris "regrets the suspension" of the probe into the Beirut port blast, urging the Lebanese judiciary to work "in total transparency, and without any political interference" so that investigations could proceed.

"It is up to the Lebanese authorities to allow the probe to continue with all the necessary financial and human resources so it can shed light on what happened on Aug. 4 and meet the legitimate expectations of the Lebanese people," French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre told reporters in Paris.

The new government held its first meeting Wednesday since it won a vote of confidence last week.

The president and prime minister authorized a committee to resume bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund over Lebanon's worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Talks with the IMF were suspended last year.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday said that the investigation into the catastrophic 2020 explosion at the Port of Beirut must continue, three days after it was suspended due to a challenge filed by ex-minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq.

“Any judicial investigation is not the (entire) judiciary. If it errs, there are three degrees for correction: the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeals and the Court of Cassation,” Aoun tweeted.

Contacts have begun between Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh to secure a new loan for Elecricite du Liban, al-Akhbar newspaper said.

Informed sources told the newspaper, in remarks published Wednesday, that Salameh is “showing readiness to finance a $200-300 million loan -- to be secured from the funds that were being used to import diesel and not from the obligatory reserves.”

UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday in a press release that they are "deeply concerned about the rapid deterioration in the living conditions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon."

"Almost the entire Syrian refugee population cannot afford the survival minimal expenditure basket," the statement said.

European Union Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf on Tuesday held a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

In a tweet after the talks, Tarraf said the meeting was "constructive and action-oriented."