Radio One Lebanon’s renowned host Gavin Ford was found dead Tuesday inside his apartment in Beit Mery.

Citing preliminary investigation revelations, LBCI television said the British radio host was “murdered.”

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Tuesday held government talks with Speaker Nabih Berri at Ain el-Tineh, and assured in statements after that a government can only be formed through “mutual acceptance” between political parties.

“A government can only be formed through mutual acceptance. It can not be formed through imposition or rejection,” Bassil told reporters after the meeting, noting he made “three suggestions” that could help ease the so-called Independent Sunni MPs representation hurdle.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday stressed France’s support for Lebanon, and urged President Michel Aoun to speed up the formation of the government in order to initiate the necessary reforms, the Lebanese Presidency said on Twitter.

“France is committed to the implementation of international conferences for Lebanon. The formation of a national unity government must be expedited in order to initiate the necessary reforms,” said Macron in a message congratulating Aoun on the occasion of Independence Day.

Progressive Socialist Party ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Tuesday condemned what he described as a “defamation” campaign against Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.

“Our partner in the country is like a robot. He has no feelings and unfortunately no appreciation of anything, even if the matter leads to economic deterioration. At least this is how things look,” Jumblat tweeted, in an apparent reference to the Hizbullah-led camp.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement denounced on Tuesday Hizbullah-launched “hate campaigns” targeting Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and his late father ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

“Evidently Hizbullah has ordered its deputies and allies to launch campaigns against Hariri and his late father. This campaign will lead nowhere but complicate things further,” an unnamed senior Mustaqbal source said.

Hizbullah has expressed adamant positions on Tuesday that easing the Sunni MPs obstacle delaying the government formation lies with "no one else" than Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

Unnamed senior Hizbullah sources told the daily: “The solution is strictly in the PM-designate’s hands and no one else. We have already told everyone without exception that we are not the party concerned to resolve the representation issue of the Consultative Gathering deputies. We are the most loyal to our allies and will not back down at all.”

MP Nadim Gemayel on Monday walked out of a meeting for Kataeb Party’s political bureau in protest at his party’s alliance with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in the Order of Pharmacists elections that were held on Sunday.

Media reports said Kataeb and SSNP “backed the same list” in the elections.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday warned against further delay in the cabinet formation process.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling has visited the town of Arsal in the Bekaa and neighboring areas for the first time, to see first-hand how the communities living near the border are “benefiting from the UK’s security and development partnership with Lebanon,” the British embassy said on Monday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has called on President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form a government without Hizbullah should the party continue refusing to hand the PM-designate the names of its three Shiite ministers.

“Any political party has the right to have a viewpoint about the formation process, but that should not be more than a mere viewpoint. President Aoun and PM-designate Hariri have the right to endorse or reject this viewpoint. The party concerned can also grant or withhold its confidence from the formed government. This is the constitution and this is democracy,” Geagea said in an interview with the Central News Agency.