Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh has vowed once again that he will not withdraw from the presidential race.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, began on Saturday his pastoral visit to Tyre, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

The Patriarch's first stop was the town of Ain Ibel, where he was met by representative of House Speaker Nabih Berri, MP Ali Bazzi, representative of Hizbullah, MP Hassan Fadlallah, representative of Kataeb, former Minister Salim Sayegh, and former General Wahbi Qatisha, representing the Lebanese Forces. Also greeting the Patriarch was UNIFIL Chief of Staff, and leaders of the French, Finnish, and Irish contingents, as well as representatives of the Lebanese Armed Forces.

A meeting between ex-PM Saad Hariri and political adviser to the Speaker Minister Ali Hassan Khalil in Paris, did not achieve much at the level of the presidential nominations, media reports said on Saturday.

The meeting between the two officials was not prepared beforehand, it happened by chance when Hariri was taking a walk and he ran accidentally into Khalil, who was on a visit to Paris to deliver a lecture, the reports added.

The Free Patriotic Movement is pleased with the general “positive” atmospheres surrounding the nomination of its founder MP Michel Aoun for the presidential post, as media reports said that ex-PM Saad Hariri will possibly declare Aoun's nomination next week, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.

Prominent sources of the FPM told al-Akhbar daily that “the atmospheres are very positive. The rally of Aoun's supporters tomorrow will be the last one to be held on the road of the people's palace under the orange flags. The next meeting will be held at the Presidential Palace under the Lebanese flags.”

Speaker Nabih Berri voiced calls on the parliamentarians to either resume the all-party talks, or go to the parliament to elect a president in the next session, al-Akhbar daily reported on Saturday.

Around 40 people were arrested Friday at a Syrian refugee gathering in the Koura town of Deddeh, state-run National News Agency reported.

The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Christina Lassen, held talks Friday in Rabieh with the head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun.

Senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek lamented Friday that some parties have returned to what he called “the justifications of paralysis” and “ambiguity” regarding the stalled presidential vote.

A Free Patriotic Movement delegation visited Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel in Bikfaya on Friday and announced that the election of a president “is nearing,” although “nothing is final yet.”

A huge fire broke out in Ghazir in the district of Keserwan causing serious damage to the fiber networks of the Telecoms Ministry, the press office of Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb said in a statement on Friday.