MP Ibrahim Kanaan of the Free Patriotic Movement on Friday called for forming the new government “within days,” as his colleague MP Ziad Aswad lashed out at the Hizbullah-backed Consultative Gathering.

“President Michel Aoun is greatly determined to settle the government issue and the situation cannot continue without a government,” Kanaan said in an interview with Radio Sawt El Mada.

The Consultative Gathering, a grouping of six Hizbullah-backed Sunni MPs, insisted Friday that their representative in the new government must “exclusively represent” the Gathering.

“We insist on the appointment of one of us or one of the three candidates whom we have proposed to represent us in the government,” the Gathering said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Lebanon has signed a deal with Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, to upgrade and operate storage installations in the country's northern city of Tripoli.

Caretaker Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil signed the deal on Friday, in the presence of Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin, and told reporters that Rosneft will manage storage operations.

Police at the Rafik Hariri International Airport thwarted an attempt to smuggle 11 kg of cocaine, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

Caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Thursday threw his support behind Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman after a report in al-Akhbar newspaper accused him of preventing the judiciary from interrogating officers accused of receiving bribes from fugitives.

“Maj. Gen. Imad Othman is above any suspicion and under the law,” Mashnouq tweeted.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri left for Paris Thursday evening for a “brief family visit,” his office said.

Hariri has met in recent days with Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief ex-MP Walid Jumblat as part of a renewed and upbeat drive to form the new government.

Hizbullah on Thursday condemned what it called “the blatant U.S. interference to undermine stability in Venezuela,” a few hours after U.S. President Donald Trump recognized the opposition leader as the country's “interim president.”

“We strongly condemn the coup attempt against the legitimate authority in the country, which was instigated and backed by the United States of America,” Hizbullah said in a statement.

President Michel Aoun, discussed the financial situation on Thursday during a meeting with caretaker Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, the National News Agency reported.

The Internal Security Forces said it foiled a liquid cocaine smuggling attempt to transfer

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, during a visit to Paris that Israel “won’t stand idly shall it be threatened by Lebanon,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

Rivlin met Macron ahead of the latter’s scheduled visit to Lebanon next month, and discussed “Iran’s growing influence in Syria and Lebanon,” said the daily.