Economy Minister Mansour Bteish on Thursday lashed out at Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh's “financial engineering” tactics.

“The country is rife with talk about the difficult economic situation and people are sharing reports about an expected collapse and they're only wondering about its timing!” Bteish said at a press conference.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday commented on high-level Russian-Israeli cooperation that resulted in the repatriation of the remains of an Israeli soldier missing since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Addressing “the advocates of normalization with the Assad regime” and “those fighting for its return to the Arab League,” Geagea tweeted: “What will you say now after what happened, which proved that there is no state in Syria?”

The Council of Ministers on Thursday formed a ministerial panel tasked with devising a “national strategy for combating corruption,” as it failed to reach an agreement over fine exemptions for certain firms.

At the beginning of the session which had 26 items on its agenda, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said “it is unacceptable to leak the Cabinet's agenda and discuss it through the media before it reaches the Council of Ministers.”

A series of protests were held in Riad al-Solh in Beirut ahead of a Cabinet session held at the Grand Serail.

MP Yassin Jaber affirmed that a visit scheduled for a Lebanese parliamentary delegation to Washington next Sunday “is not related to reports about new US sanctions,” against Hizbullah, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Thursday.

A ministerial panel tasked with studying a plan to solve the country’s chronic electricity crisis, will reportedly complete the final version of its report on Thursday to be submitted to Cabinet on Friday, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

During his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, President Michel Aoun has reportedly raised the “nomination of his son-in-law and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil to the post of presidency in the next elections, asking for Putin’s support,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday described the handover of the body of an Israeli soldier missing since 1982 as a valuable gift to embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of elections.

“In the game of nations that manipulates the fate of peoples, the handover of the body of an Israeli soldier via unknown mediators is a free but precious gift to Netanyahu for his elections,” Jumblat tweeted.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday stressed Lebanon's commitment to the policy of disassociation from “all the tensions and fires” in the region and to the reforms recommended by the CEDRE Lebanon support conference.

The Lebanese Army has received six unmanned aerial vehicles as part of the U.S. military assistance program, the National News Agency said on Wednesday.

The delivery took place at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in the presence of Lebanese officers and representatives of the U.S. embassy.