Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has received a cable of greetings marking Lebanon’s Independence Day from U.S. President Donald Trump, Hariri’s office said on Monday.

“We deeply value the partnership between our two countries and applaud the great progress your government has made over the past year, including by holding a successful legislative election and remaining steadfast in the fight against terrorism,” Trump says in the cable.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday commented sarcastically on reports suggesting that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri had been held against his will in Saudi Arabia last year.

“PM-designate Hariri will stay in Saudi Arabia for two days, so I hope there won't be rumors that he's kidnapped,” MBS quipped in remarks to an investment conference in Riyadh, flanked by Hariri and Bahrain's crown prince.

Parliament's legislative session witnessed Tuesday a verbal clash between Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and MP Jamil al-Sayyed who is close to Hizbullah and Damascus.

The confrontation erupted when Hariri was talking about loans related to the CEDRE Lebanon support conference.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Tuesday described a decision by Ghobeiri Municipality to name a street after slain Hizbullah commander Mustafa Badreddine as “the very essence of sectarian discord.”

Badreddine has been accused by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of being the mastermind of the 2005 attack that killed ex-PM Rafik Hariri, Saad's father. The Hizbullah commander was killed by rebel shelling in Syria in 2016 according to Hizbullah officials.

A government formula proposed by PM-designate Saad Hariri to President Michel Aoun on Monday has failed to accomplish the needed results and was reportedly pronounced “stillborn”, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

PM-designate Saad Hariri announced Monday that he presented to President Michel Aoun a format for "a national unity government" that does not entail a "victory" for a political camp over another.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has announced that he prefers to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding Syria and not to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Russia controls Syria. So we will deal with the Russians,” Hariri said in English in an interview with Euronews, when asked what the end of Syria's war would mean for Lebanon.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri prefers to hold talks with Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil over the government line-up before meeting President Michel Aoun, media reports said.

“Hariri will not visit Aoun carrying any draft Cabinet line-up except after a meeting he will hold anytime before the end of the week with FPM chief Minister Jebran Bassil,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Friday.

MP Jamil al-Sayyed lashed out Wednesday at Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, noting that he is “not a statesman.”

“More than two weeks ago, I said that foreign forces were forbidding Hariri from forming the government, and I mentioned in the tweet that I would apologize to Hariri should he form the government within two weeks! The time has passed and he has not dared to form it,” al-Sayyed tweeted.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri warned Tuesday that he could soon name those who are “obstructing” the formation of the new government, as he stressed that the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon will fulfill justice in the case of the assassination of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

“If the government is not formed soon, I will name those who are obstructing its formation,” Hariri told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting for the al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc.