Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut Elias Aude on Sunday lamented that officials in charge of the country are “gambling with what’s left of it for the sake of securing their own interests, preserving their gains and staying in their posts.”

This comes “over the corpse of the country and its citizens,” Aude decried in his Easter sermon.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lashed out at Lebanese politicians and called on them to put an end to the conditions and counter-conditions that are delaying the formation of the new government.

“The government is not for you, but rather for the people. The ministries are not for you, but rather for the people. The rule is not for you, but rather for the people. The institutions are not for you, but rather for the people. Enough with the preconditions that do not serve the country and the citizens but rather politicians’ interests,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

President Michel Aoun is “still waiting for Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri” to make a move regarding the formation of the new government, sources informed on Baabda’s stance said.

The president has told Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi that he has “no intention” to obtain a one-third-plus-one share in the new cabinet, the sources added, in remarks to the al-Anbaa news portal of the Progressive Socialist Party.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is “continuing his efforts for speeding up the government’s formation,” Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad has said.

Al-Rahi is “meeting representatives of President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri,” Ghayyad added in a press interview.

The Lebanese Army Command - Orientation Directorate issued a communiqué on Saturday, in which it indicated that an Israeli enemy foot patrol violated the "Blue Line" in the locality of Khirbet Sheaib.

Israeli troops crossed the line marching an approximate 45 meters distance into Lebanese territories.

President Michel Aoun on Saturday saluted “all the workers in Lebanon” on Labor Day, as the country slides deeper in an unprecedented economic crisis.

Lebanon observes another three-day total lockdown on Saturday over Orthodox Easter in a move to control the spread of coronavirus cases during the holidays.

A ship prepared Friday to ferry dozens of containers of hazardous materials from Lebanon's capital to Germany, managers of a cleanup project said, months after disaster struck on the dockside. 

The suspended negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over the demarcation of their maritime border will resume next week following the arrival in Beirut of U.S. mediator John Desrocher, who is expected in the country on Saturday or Sunday, informed sources said.

“The decision to resume the negotiations came based on a U.S. move, which has been met by a positive Lebanese response, and the exact date will be announced in the coming hours,” a Lebanese military source and a source informed on the Presidency’s stance told Asharq al-Awsat daily in remarks published Friday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will arrive in Beirut in the middle of next week on a two-day visit, Lebanese TV networks reported on Friday.

The reports come only a few hours after Le Drian said France had begun imposing entry restrictions on certain Lebanese figures as a sanction for their role in Lebanon's political crisis or corruption.