The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Trial Chamber II has issued an order canceling the commencement of trial in the Hamadeh-Hawi-Murr case on June 16, 2021 due to “lack of funds,” the STL said on Thursday.

President Michel Aoun was on Thursday meeting with Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and State Shura Council head Judge Fadi Elias after the Central Bank froze a circular allowing depositors to make use of their USD accounts at the LBP 3,900 rate.

Al-Jadeed TV reported that Aoun had made contacts overnight that led to the reversal of the bank’s decision and that the outcome would be announced after Thursday’s meeting in Baabda.

The Presidency on Wednesday lashed out at al-Mustaqbal Movement over its latest statement, saying it contained “fallacies” and “rude expressions.”

“In concurrence with the ongoing contacts to form the new government, al-Mustaqbal Movement is continuing its campaigns against the Presidency and against the person of President Michel Aoun, using expressions and labels that highlight the low level that the rhetoric of this Movement’s officials has reached,” the Presidency said in a statement.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he is waiting for answers regarding his ongoing initiative to resolve the government formation deadlock.

In remarks to Annahar newspaper published Wednesday, Berri said PM-designate Saad Hariri told him in the latest meeting that he agrees to the proposed initiative.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on Wednesday said that it “regrets to announce that it is facing an unprecedented financial crisis,” warning that without “immediate funding,” it will not be able to operate beyond July 2021.

This will “impact its ability to fulfill its current mandate and conclude the judicial proceedings in the two cases currently before the Tribunal, the Ayyash et al. case (STL-11-01) and the Ayyash case (STL-18-10),” the court added in a statement, referring to the case of the Rafik Hariri murder and the case of the attacks on Elias Murr, Marwan Hamadeh and Georges Hawi.

Joanna Wronecka, the newly appointed U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, arrived Tuesday in Beirut to take up her new position.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement on Tuesday blasted Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and described him as the country’s “shadow president.”

“Shadow president Jebran Bassil spares no opportunity to talk in the name of the president of the republic, confirming that the two men’s obstruction will comes before all the national efforts seeking to form a government,” the Movement said in a statement, hours after a press conference by Bassil.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday pledged to facilitate the cabinet formation process as he warned that the FPM would take “more pressuring steps” should the efforts to put together a new government drag for more than one week.

“We will smother any new excuse not to form the government and it is clear that there is a fabrication of excuses in order not to form it,” Bassil said at a press conference that followed the weekly meeting of the FPM-led Strong Lebanon bloc.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s health is “improving” and “is now better than it was during his latest TV appearance,” sources close to him have said.

“He is specifically being treated for a spring allergy and pneumonia and it is not correct that he is infected with coronavirus,” the sources told the journalist Imad Marmal, who is close to Hizbullah and works for its al-Manar TV, in remarks published Tuesday in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri might give up the mission of forming a new government should the difficulty in forming a “rescue government” continue, political sources said.

Hariri may make such a move should an agreement on forming an “elections government” be reached, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper quoted the sources as saying in remarks published Tuesday.