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.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon has announced a strike starting Monday, as it said in a statement that banks can no longer bear harmful and populist measures against them.

The Banks Association decried the arrest of the Chairman of Creditbank, stressing that banks should not be blamed for the economic situation.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Friday Hezbollah's missiles are directly serving Iran's strategic interests.

"This has led to enormous consequences on the Lebanese people," he added.

An organization of Americans of Lebanese descent in the U.S. has remembered in a statement the second anniversary of the Beirut Port Explosion and grieved with the many families "who still feel the pain of lost loved ones."

"August 4, 2020 was a day that will forever mark Lebanon and from which the country is still reeling. The passage of time does not bring back loved ones,” the Lebanese Information Center President, Joseph Gebeily, said.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday decried "the ugly political exploitation against the resistance" in connection with the Beirut port blast case.

A large section of Beirut's giant port grain silos, shredded by a massive explosion two years ago, collapsed on Thursday as hundreds marched in Beirut to mark the second anniversary of the blast that killed scores.

The northern block of the silos consisting of four towers has been slowly tilting for days and collapsed causing a huge cloud of dust that covered the structure that shielded Beirut's western neighborhoods when the blast occurred on Aug. 4, 2020 killing nearly 220 people, injuring over 6,000 and causing damage worth billions of dollars.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Thursday that “the martyrs of August 4, the martyrs of entire Lebanon, are the victims of a crime that hit the core of every Lebanese.”

“I reiterate that the path that would definitely lead to justice and to unveiling the truth would be the implementation of the constitution and the law,” Berri said in a statement marking the second anniversary of the catastrophic Beirut port blast.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday said he raises the “voice of anger against all officials, whoever they may be, wherever they may be and no matter their status,” in remarks marking the second anniversary of the tragic Beirut port blast.

“They are obstructing the investigation, as if everything that happened was a silly and trivial accident,” al-Rahi said during a mass commemorating the victims.

President Michel Aoun marked the second anniversary of the Beirut port blast on Thursday by saying that he shares “the grief of the victims’ families and the suffering of the detainees’ families.”

“I stress to them my commitment to fulfilling justice that is based on full truth, which should be unveiled by an honest judicial course that would go until the end, away from any falsification, selectivity or injustice, in order to hold accountable anyone whose involvement is verified,” Aoun said in a tweet.

Hezbollah on Thursday marked the second anniversary of the Beirut port explosion by expressing its “warm condolences” to “the families of all martyrs -- Christians and Muslims, Lebanese and non-Lebanese.”

“Over the past two years, we witnessed a huge wave of intensive political and media campaigns that included false accusations and a large amount of incitement that led to very dangerous domestic tensions that almost undermined the country’s security and stability, especially after the bloody incidents in Tayyouneh,” Hezbollah said in a statement.