Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday openly endorsed the presidential nomination of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, around two weeks after Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad announced that the party had an undeclared candidate.

Kateb chief MP Sami Gemayel met Monday with Maronite Archbishop of Antelias Antoine Abu Najem over the presidential crisis.

“The meeting was fruitful,” Gemayel said, adding that his party will do its best to prevent the election of a president who adopts a “defiance approach” that would destroy "what is left of Lebanon."

First Investigative Judge of Beirut Charbel Abou Samra on Monday scheduled a March 15 session for the interrogation of Central Bank chief Riad Salameh, his brother Raja and his assistant Marianne Hoayek, the National News Agency said.

Contract teachers rallied Monday in front of the Education Ministry and blocked roads, demanding a further salary increase and higher transport allowances.

Other public teachers returned to class, partially ending a two-month strike.

Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Sunday said that the “latest developments” have increased the chances for “consensus” over the presidential file.

“Our priority lies in electing a president to halt the collapse and rescue the country, but the priority of the challenge and confrontation camp is taking the country to a new adventure in order to overturn the domestic political balances," Qaouq said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has confirmed that he has rejected “domestic and foreign” proposals for the election of Suleiman Franjieh as president in return for the appointment of a pro-opposition premier.

Independent MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad said Friday that he will not accept to be insulted, after Speaker Nabih Berri described him as an “in vitro experiment” candidate.

"What Berri said is not acceptable," Mouawad said. "We are not students in a classroom."

Hezbollah condemned Friday remarks by the Head of Foreign Affairs in the Lebanese Forces Party, Richard Kouyoumjian, who criticized the Shiite Mutaa marriage and the political Shiism that he described as "arrogant."

"Even if religion allows it, Mutaa marriage remains an adultery that results in an illegitimate child whose mother is ashamed of, and whose actual father is different from his real father," Kouyoumjian had said in a tweet.

Presidential candidate MP Michel Mouawad on Thursday lashed out at Speaker Nabih Berri in a barb-filled statement, after the latter described him as an “in vitro experiment” candidate.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will not call for another "theatrical" session that would not elect a president.

In an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper, Berri said that he will try to break the impasse and that he will only call for a session when he senses that the parties are ready to elect, not to "waste time" and "make statements."