President Michel Aoun warned on Monday that Lebanon could be heading towards “hell” if the competing political parties do not agree on a government, stressing that the ministerial portfolios are not distributed on the basis of sects in the Constitution.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan recommended a total two-week lockdown to stem the alarming rise in daily detected coronavirus infections, but authorities say it finds it difficult to impose another lockdown amid an unprecedented economic collapse.

Lebanon registered a record 1,006 cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, the government announced Sunday, amid a sharp increase in infections and deaths due to the new coronavirus.

A Bulgarian court on Monday sentenced two men to life in prison over a deadly 2012 bus bomb attack on Israeli tourists at the country's Burgas airport blamed on Hizbullah.

Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib issued a statement on Monday urging Lebanon’s competing political parties to work towards the success of the French initiative, saying the country does not have the luxury of time amid its prevalent collapse.

Amid the insistence of the Shiite duo to retain the finance ministry, France is inclined to handle this as “unconstitutional” because Lebanon’s political components reject it, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

Diplomatic sources told the daily the departure of outgoing French ambassador to Lebanon Bernard Faucher Beirut last Saturday, no doubt will affect the direct French contact with Hizbullah.

Lebanon on Sunday said it confirmed 1,006 new novel coronavirus cases and 11 deaths from the disease in 24 hours, in a new record for the crisis-hit country.

The Higher Islamic Shiite Council on Sunday condemned what it called “the remarks voiced by a major religious leader against the Islamic Shiite sect,” in reference to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“The rhetoric has descended into sectarian incitement that stirs sentiments, distorts facts and hurls false accusations against a sect that offered the best of its young men and capabilities in the battle of the country’s liberation,” the Council said in a statement.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday hit out at Hizbullah and Amal Movement without naming them, in connection with the ongoing row over the finance ministerial portfolio.

“What entitles a sect to demand a certain ministry as if it owns it, what entitles it to suspend the government’s formation until it gets what it wants, causing political paralysis and economic, financial and social damages?” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

The International Support Group for Lebanon has urged Lebanese leaders to “swiftly form an effective and credible government.”

Former prime ministers of Lebanon emphasized the importance of the French initiative saying it could be a true chance to save Lebanon from “collapse and sedition,” the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

Ex-PMs Najib Miqati, Fouad Saniora, Saad Hariri and Tammam Salam held an evening meeting on Friday at the Center House.