Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc did not name ex-PM Saad Hariri for the premiership, while head of the Development and Liberation bloc Speaker Nabih Berri said it is time to “pay back the debt” to Hariri as his bloc named him prime minister during the binding parliamentary consultations on Thursday with newly elected President General Michel Aoun.

Speaking on behalf of the bloc, MP Mohammed Raad said: “We did not name anyone for the post of prime minister.”

The representative of the Supreme Leader to the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Saeedi, said that the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain had intended to isolate Hizbullah but the party managed through its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's ability to present itself to the society as a model and example for West Asia and Lebanon.

Saeedi told Iran's International Tasnim News Agency that “the election of Aoun as president for Lebanon has definitely limited Saudi Arabia's influence in the country.”

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry began a series of contacts to prepare for the first visit for the newly elected president General Michel Aoun abroad, according to information obtained by Naharnet on Thursday.

Senior diplomatic sources in the Ministry revealed that the President has asked authorities at the foreign and environment ministries of detailed information on the work of Climate Change Conference to be held in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh next week.

Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to “return the favor” and announce his support for al-Mustaqbal Movement chief Saad Hariri for the post of premiership, after some positive signals that Hariri had received in that regard.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday noted that “the vast majority of countries,” including Iran, did not want Michel Aoun to become president of Lebanon.

A Syrian abductee was released for ransom Wednesday in the Bekaa region, state-run National News Agency reported.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday received congratulatory cables over his election from Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of Gulf leaders.

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra has announced that the LF would “voice reservations” should the policy statement of the new government include the controversial “army-people-resistance” equation.

Senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek called Wednesday for the formation of a national unity government that “does not exclude anyone,” while stressing that “the entire world cannot break the ties that gather Hizbullah and the AMAL Movement.”

The binding parliamentary consultations with elected President Michel Aoun for the designation of a new premier kicked off on Wednesday at the presidential palace in Baabda.