Caretaker Social Affairs and Tourism Minister Ramzi Musharrafieh affirmed on Friday that his recent meeting with Syrian officials in Damascus on the refugee file were “positive and encouraging.”

He said the “discussions with Syrian officials during his recent visit to Damascus were more than positive and very encouraging,” and that “all the ministers he met with, expressed their full readiness to work with Lebanon to activate the file of the return of displaced persons.”

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi sounded the alarm about the impact of Lebanon’s crippling economic crisis on the performance and response of security forces.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) submitted its twelfth annual report to the United Nations Secretary-General and the Government of Lebanon, the STL said in a press release.

Lebanon's caretaker energy minister Thursday warned the country would plunge into "total darkness" at the end of the month if no money was secured to buy fuel for power stations.

Power cuts have been common in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, forcing Lebanese to pay a second power bill to private generators for three to 12 hours each day during the outages.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Hajjar said Thursday that PM-designate Saad Hariri is ready to meet with President Michel Aoun on the government formation process if the latter has something new on the file

“The PM-designate could head to Baabda if anything new happened,” said Hajjar.

President Michel Aoun and caretaker Defense Minister Zeina Akar discussed the latest security developments during a meeting at Baabda Palace, the National News Agency reported Thursday.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri congratulated the Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, on the Libyan lawmakers decisions to grant confidence to the Government of National Unity, Hariri’s press office said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Firass Abiad, Director of Lebanon’s main coronavirus hospital, RHUH, in a series of tweets on Thursday stressed that self isolation for individuals who retract COVID-19 virus is key to break the chain of transmission and help control the virus spread.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) Pre-Trial Judge, Daniel Fransen, will hold a sixth Status Conference on 24 March 2021 in the Ayyash Case, which relates to the 2004-2005 bomb attacks on George Hawi, Marwan Hamadeh and Elias Murr.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has held a “positive” meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and “there is hope that the government might be formed soon,” Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad said.