The Lebanese Forces-led Strong Republic bloc on Thursday filed a request for holding a parliamentary session aimed at voting on withdrawing confidence from Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib over “violations” related to expat voting.

The request accuses the Foreign Ministry of committing “grave violations” related to the preparations for parliamentary elections abroad.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati who has been repeatedly defending a capital control draft law, reiterated on Thursday that the capital control law and the depositors' rights are two separate things.

"It would be wrong to mix the capital control law and the depositors' rights," Miqati said at the start of a Cabinet session at the Grand Serail.

The Lebanese currency on Thursday declined on the black market, with a rate exceeding 26,000 against the dollar.

It dropped to a rate of 26,500 as the country prepares for its parliamentary elections in May.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Wednesday called for “preserving people’s deposits and savings,” stressing that “the solutions for the financial and economic crisis should not be at the expense of depositors and their lifelong savings.”

The solutions “should be at the expense of those who plunged the country into the current deterioration at all levels,” the Mufti added.

The army announced Wednesday the arrest of an Amal Movement supporter who had opened fire Saturday from a handgun during a violent protest against a rival electoral rally in the southern city of Sarafand.

“A patrol from the Intelligence Patrol has arrested in the Sidon town of Sarafand the citizen A. Kh. for opening fire in the air in the aforementioned town during a protest by a number of the town’s residents against the announcement of an electoral list,” an army statement said.

President Michel Aoun expressed Wednesday his support for Palestinians and Jerusalemites, after a weekend of violence in Jerusalem.

"The systematic attacks of the Israeli occupation forces on al-Aqsa Mosque will not change the identity of the Holy City," Aoun said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday announced that the LF will call on parliament to withdraw confidence from Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib over accusations related to the distribution of polling stations abroad.

“We will call for withdrawing confidence from the foreign minister based on what he is doing in the expat voting file,” Geagea said.

A session on capital control was adjourned Wednesday, as the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement's MPs refused to discuss the draft law.

Depositors and activists had rallied since morning outside Parliament to prevent MPs from attending the session held by the joint parliamentary committees, as they considered that the law will deprive depositors from their rights.

Depositors and activists rallied Wednesday outside Parliament to prevent MPs from attending a session on capital control held by the joint parliamentary committees.

Some protestors kicked the car of Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli and threw stones at it, media reports said.

The motive behind the killing of the pharmacist Layla Rizk in her drugstore in Mrouj on Monday was not theft, Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi said on Tuesday.

CCTV “cameras have led to some threads,” Mawlawi added from Bkirki, noting that “the criminal will soon be brought to justice.”