Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut Elias Aude on Sunday decried that Lebanon is being ruled by one “person” and an “armed group.”

“Today, this country is being ruled by a person you all know, and no one is saying a word, and it is being ruled by a group hiding behind arms,” Aude said in a sermon marking the 14th anniversary of the assassination of the journalist Gebran Tueni.

A man in Lebanon tried to self-immolate during a protest in Beirut on Saturday, the Lebanese Red Cross said, before protesters extinguished the flames.

Protesters in Riad al-Solh Square smothered the flames with jackets and blankets, an AFP photographer said.

Outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Saturday asked another group of foreign allies to secure credit lines for imports to aid Lebanon’s stricken economy, after sending a similar message a day earlier asking Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, China, Russia, Italy and the United States.

The Israeli army said it found a new cross-border tunnel dug by Hizbullah on the Lebanese-Israeli border, noting that the party had “strengthened its presence along the border area a year after discovering a network of its tunnels,” media reports said on Saturday.

Speaker Nabih Berri asserted the need for an “emergency” government to help Lebanon out of the crisis, noting that his Liberation and Development Parliamentary Bloc will vote for the leading candidate for the post of Prime Minister, Samir Khatib, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Lebanese journalists are facing threats and wide-ranging harassment in their work — including verbal insults and physical attacks, even death threats — while reporting on nearly 50 days of anti-government protests, despite Lebanon's reputation as a haven for free speech in a troubled region.

Nationwide demonstrations erupted on Oct. 17 over a plunging economy. They quickly grew into calls for sweeping aside Lebanon's entire ruling elite. Local media outlets — some of which represent the sectarian interests protesters are looking to overthrow — are now largely seen as pro- or anti-protests, with some journalists feeling pressured to leave their workplaces over disagreements about media coverage.

Ex-interior minister and Beirut MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Friday announced that he will boycott the binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier scheduled for Monday.

In a tweet, Mashnouq, once a member of al-Mustaqbal bloc, said his decision comes out of “respect for the will of the capital’s residents” following “the statement that was issued by the Union of the Associations of Beiruti Families.”

Ex-minister Wiam Wahhab on Friday said that a new premiership candidate might emerge prior to Monday’s binding parliamentary consultations, suggesting that international and domestic forces might push for a nominee other than Samir Khatib.

“Lebanon is betting on (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron’s support to halt the financial and economic collapse and the Paris meeting may prompt a change in the premiership candidates before Monday,” Wahhab, who is close to Hizbullah, tweeted.

The leading candidate for the post of PM-designate, Samir Khatib, is in “very good health,” his office said on Friday.

“Some media outlets published a report about Engineer Khatib’s health, following a series of rumors in this regard that involved insulting and false information which are totally baseless,” the office said in a statement.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Friday warned Europe that chaos in Lebanon would create repercussions similar to those of the Syrian crisis, such as extremism and a refugee influx towards Europe.

“Chaos in Lebanon – which some foreign forces are plotting – will have a similar outcome as that of the Syrian crisis: the country’s ruin, the destruction of its institutions, bloodshed among its sons, roving extremism and an influx of refugees towards you,” Bassil warned in a speech in Rome during the Mediterranean Dialogues conference.