Contacts over the formation of the new cabinet resumed slowly over the past hours and may gain steam with the return of PM-designate Saad Hariri to Beirut, media reports said.

Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni on Monday signed an urgent draft law prepared by the Premiership and aimed at “approving ration cards and opening an additional and extraordinary line of credit for funding them,” the National News Agency said.

Al-Akhbar newspaper had earlier reported that “after political blocs refused spending from the obligatory reserve” of the central bank, “the Premiership threw the ball yesterday in the court of the Finance Ministry.”

President Michel Aoun on Monday called for “liberating the state from corruption,” in a tweet marking 21 years since the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.

“On the anniversary of liberation, we remember the taste of victory and dignity, and we pledge to continue the journey of recovering our sovereignty over our entire soil and waters,” the president said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday stressed that the government formation crisis is “purely domestic and personal,” urging President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri to resolve their differences.

“Some, intentionally or unintentionally, are keen on mastering the art of crisis creation,” said Berri in a speech marking Liberation Day.

The U.S. Department of State and the Lebanese Armed Forces held their inaugural Defense Resourcing Conference on May 21, 2021, the U.S. State Department said. 

Senior Official for Arms Control and International Security C.S. Eliot Kang headed the U.S. delegation and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Commander General Joseph Aoun headed the Lebanese delegation. 

Israeli forces went on alert Sunday in a region facing the Kroum al-Sharraqi area of the Lebanese southern border town of Mays al-Jabal, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

The move came after Lebanese residents started plowing land on the border ahead of “cultivating it with the aim of consolidating its Lebanese identity,” the agency said.

The cabinet formation obstacles are still unresolved as Baabda and the Center House continue to lock horns over the way the new government should be formed, political sources said, a day after parliament debated a letter sent by President Michel Aoun regarding the crisis.

“Parliament performed its duty in terms of announcing that it is unacceptable to speak of withdrawing designation after the binding parliamentary consultations, and in this regard, we can say that yesterday’s session consolidated Hariri’s designation,” the sources told the al-Anbaa news portal of the Progressive Socialist Party.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to “take initiative” and submit an “updated” draft cabinet line-up to President Michel Aoun “as soon as possible.”

Hariri must agree with Aoun on “the structure, portfolios and names based on the standards of a government of nonpartisan specialists in which no party enjoys hegemony,” al-Rahi added in his Pentecost Sunday sermon.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Saturday stressed that all Lebanese sects have the right to be properly represented in the new government, as he called for a constitutional amendment that sets a deadline for PMs-designate to form a new government.

Bassil added, in a speech before parliament, that President Michel Aoun and the FPM are urging PM-designate Saad Hariri to form a new government and are not seeking to withdraw his designation.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Saturday lashed out at President Michel Aoun and accused him of obstructing the formation of the long-awaited government.

“The President is violating the constitution by insisting on granting the government his own confidence and he should let parliament vote on confidence,” Hariri said at a parliament session dedicated to debating a letter sent by Aoun to parliament regarding the complications that are blocking the new cabinet.