Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi met Friday with President Michel Aoun who assured him that the government is ready to submit the IMF-required draft laws to Parliament.

Al-Rahi urged the Lebanese for a heavy turnout in the upcoming parliamentary elections, adding that "voting is a duty."

Yemen's Foreign Ministry announced Friday the return of its ambassador to Lebanon.

The ministry said it took the decision as Lebanon vowed to "stop all aggressive activities and practices that are detrimental to Arab countries."

MTV said Friday it has filed a lawsuit against Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun accusing her of slandering the TV channel.

"Judge Aoun is not respecting the confidentiality of investigations," MTV's lawyer Mark Habaka said, adding that the suit aims at banning the judge's tweets.

Saudi Arabia announced Thursday it was sending back its ambassador to Lebanon, five months after a row erupted over the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

The foreign ministry "announces the return of the ambassador... to the sisterly Republic of Lebanon," read a statement carried by Saudi state media.

The IMF announced Thursday that after months of negotiations it reached a staff-level agreement to provide Lebanon with $3 billion in aid to help it emerge from a severe economic crisis.

The country has been battered by triple digit inflation, soaring poverty rates, and the collapse of its currency since a 2020 debt default, and officials in Beirut applauded the announcement as it will open the door to additional financial support.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed Thursday that “major hopes” are pinned on the upcoming parliamentary elections, adding that “it will be the first practical translation of the orientations of the people who rebelled in squares” in 2019, “especially the young generation.”

Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi on Thursday reassured that “no security incidents” can affect the upcoming parliamentary elections, days after two people were killed and three others were wounded in an armed clash between two families in Tripoli.

“The motives behind the Tripoli incidents were familial and no security incidents can affect the elections,” Mawlawi announced after an emergency meeting for the Central Security Council.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday signed a law adopted by parliament for including the expenses of the May 15 parliamentary polls in the 2022 state budget, the Presidency said.

Separately, Aoun met in Baabda with the head of the European Union Election Observation Mission Lebanon 2022, Gyorgy Holvenyi, and reassured him that “all measures have been taken in order to hold the elections on time, in an atmosphere of freedom, democracy and transparency.”

The head of the European Union Election Observation Mission Lebanon 2022, Gyorgy Holvenyi, met Thursday in Baabda with President Michel Aoun and announced that around 200 observers will monitor Lebanon’s May 15 parliamentary elections in a professional, transparent and impartial manner, the Lebanese Presidency said.

In a tweet, Holvenyi said he met with Aoun to “explain about the Mission and its work in fostering confidence and reinforcing the democratic process in the country.”

Lebanon’s central bank, also known as Banque du Liban (BDL), is “counting its gold reserves for the first time in at least three decades,” as the international community “pressures the cash-strapped country to evaluate its assets to qualify for a bail-out,” English-language Emirati newspaper The National reported on Thursday.

“About 20 per cent of the time-consuming exercise has been completed in the past two years,” two senior civil servants told The National.