A delegation from the U.S. Congress headed by lawmaker Mark Takano, and Congressmen Colin Allred and Katie Porter, arrived Monday in Beirut.

The American delegation met with Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pledged that Damascus will continue to back Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Friday emphasized that the election of a new president for the country is not solely the responsibility of Hezbollah.

“The obligatory path for the beginning of reforms and the beginning of working for rescuing Lebanon is the election of the president, that’s why all blocs are responsible for the election of the president and let no one hold Hezbollah alone responsible,” Qassem said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday held a meeting in Ain el-Tineh with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

State-run National News Agency said the talks tackled “the general situations and the latest political developments.”

Hezbollah might endorse the presidential nomination of al-Marada chief Suleiman Franjieh without the approval of the Free Patriotic Movement, caretaker Minister of information Ziad Makari said.

"I can confirm that Hezbollah will endorse Franjieh," Makari told al-Jadeed TV on Friday.

Former minister and Tripoli MP Faisal Karami has said that his hand is extended to all parties, except for the Lebanese Forces.

A close ally of Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar Assad, Karami had regained on Thursday his seat in parliament from dentist and pro-democracy activist Rami Fanj, following an appeal claiming the initial vote count in Fanj's favor was inaccurate.

People in Lebanon, among them Palestine refugees, are “suffering and paying the price for something not of their making,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said during a visit to the country.

“I met with Palestine refugees during my visit who are completely ravished by poverty, despair and lack of prospect. The humanitarian situation of Palestine refugees in Lebanon is extremely alarming. People are dying a slow death as many are unable to afford medicines or co-share the cost of treatment especially for chronic diseases and cancer. Levels of poverty and unemployment are unprecedented due to one of the worst economic crises in recent history. The spread of cholera is the latest tragic layer that adds to acute hardship and helplessness,” Lazzarini added.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday annulled the parliamentary membership of Rami Fanj (Tripoli, Sunni) and Firas al-Salloum, declaring the win of Faisal Karami (Tripoli, Sunni) and Haidar Nasser (Tripoli, Alawite).

Karami is an ally of Hezbollah and the March 8 camp while Fanj was a member of the 13-MP Change bloc. Nasser meanwhile was a member of Fanj’s electoral list.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Thursday that exiting the country’s multifaceted crisis should be through “a general solution and a general settlement.”

He added that such a settlement “should before anything else entail the election of a president as soon as possible, the formation of a new government, speeding up the cycle of the aspired reforms and reaching a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”

Parliament on Thursday held a seventh session for the election of a new president to no avail, prolonging the political crisis in the country.

As 50 blank votes were cast by Hezbollah and its allies, 42 votes went to MP Michel Mouawad, eight for “New Lebanon”, six went to the academic and historian Issam Khalife, two went to ex-minister Ziad Baroud and one went to jailed Customs chief Badri Daher.