Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called Tuesday for parliament to meet Thursday to elect a president to replace Michel Aoun whose term expires at the end of October.

"Berri called for a session to be held at 11:00 am (8:00 GMT) on Thursday September 29, 2022 in order to elect a president," a statement from his office said.

Parliament on Monday approved the 2022 state budget with 63 MPs voting for it, 37 voting against it and 6 abstaining out of 106 lawmakers present in the session.

The budget includes a three-fold wage hike for public sector employees and the armed forces as well as for retirees.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has lauded the latest speech of Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, saying it was “more than good and unifying.”

“What concerns us is holding the presidential vote within the constitutional timeframe,” Berri said in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

President Michel Aoun held talks Monday in Baabda with Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab, who briefed him on the outcome of the visit he made to New York last week.

Bou Saab also briefed Aoun on the meetings he held there with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein regarding the sea border negotiations with Israel.

Hundreds of retired Lebanese army soldiers briefly broke through a police cordon near Parliament in downtown Beirut as the legislature was in session, discussing the 2022 budget.

The protesters demanded an increase in their monthly retirement pay, decimated during the economic meltdown.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced Sunday that the country’s banks will resume operations as of Monday, following a one-week closure prompted by a wave of bank “heists” that were carried out by depositors demanding their savings.

In a statement, ABL said it held a meeting in which it discussed “the need to secure the continuity of services for clients while taking into consideration the difficult security situations and the need to preserve the safety of clients and employees alike, in the absence of sufficient protection from the state.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that he is not a presidential candidate as he reassured that a new government will be formed.

“I won’t become a candidate except after I declare my candidacy, which I haven’t done until now,” Bassil said, in a video interview with Annahar newspaper.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday met with the ambassadors of the EU and its member states resident in Beirut.

During the meeting, Berri thoroughly explained “the roadmap to rescue the situation in Lebanon, topped by the agreement with the International Monetary Fund and finalizing the reformist laws such as the state budget, the capital control law, the banking secrecy law and the economic recovery plan that have recently reached parliament.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday reiterated his call for electing a “salvation president” who can rescue Lebanon, in comments related to the new boat tragedy in Tripoli.

“Today there is a new death ferry from Tripoli, dozens of victims and continued tears and pain, and yesterday there had been storming operations against a host of banks that led to a general strike of banks and additional suffering for the Lebanese citizens,” Geagea said.

President Michel Aoun on Friday expressed his relief over “the tripartite statement that was issued yesterday by France, the U.S. and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding the situation in Lebanon.”

He also stressed “the need to elect a new president within the constitutional timeframe in addition to forming a new government that would win parliament’s confidence prior to the expiry of the presidential term on October 31.”