Sixteen independent and "change" MPs convened Monday at the Parliament to discuss the Parliamentary sessions' agendas and the method of voting.

The MPs will not discuss the upcoming Presidential election, MP Ashraf Rifi said before the meeting.

Free Patriotic Movement MP Salim Aoun said that there was a plan to beat President Michel Aoun since the start of its term as President.

"Only one year after Aoun's election as President, back then Prime Minister Saad Hariri was kidnapped," MP Aoun said. "The aim was to create a strife in Lebanon," he added.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called Monday the 67 MPs who are not supporters of the so-called Axis of defiance to cooperate in order to select a candidate for Presidency.

Geagea considered that "any reform plan must start with the election of a new President."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al- Rahi on Sunday voiced pain and anger over the latest "ugly" exchanges between PM-designate Najib Mikati and the Free Patriotic Movement.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday warned Israel against making a “miscalculation” towards Lebanon similar to the one he said it has made towards Gaza, where it has launched a major military operation against the Islamic Jihad group.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry on Saturday issued a statement saying that "Lebanon strongly condemns the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip."

Hezbollah on Friday offered warm condolences to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group after Israeli strikes on Gaza killed senior commander Taysir al-Jabari and 14 other people, in what Israel has described as a major military campaign against the group.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati accused Friday the Free Patriotic Movement of political blackmail, after a series of statement attacks between the two.

Minutes after the FPM issued a statement slamming Mikati for corruption, the latter hit back at FPM chief Jebran Bassil without naming him, criticizing him for lecturing about honesty and rightness, while he is internationally sanctioned for corruption.

The Free Patriotic movement responded Friday to a statement by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati accusing the FPM of corruption.

The FPM asked what are Mikati's national achievements, accusing him back of corruption and of trying to please foreign countries.

Lebanon did not sell any passports to non-Lebanese, the Presidency said Friday. "The report published in the French Liberation newspaper is false and baseless."

The premiership also denied a naturalization decree reported in the daily without naming it, affirming that Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati is not considering such a decree.