MPs Ashraf Rifi, Michel Moawad, Fouad al-Makhzoumi and Adib abdel Massih announced Friday the program of their new parliamentary bloc, Tajaddod.

Rifi demanded the hand over of any illegal "Lebanese or non-Lebanese weapons" to the state, considering that Hezbollah's arms have lost their resistance character.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat suggested Thursday that “the Egyptian gas and the Jordanian electricity will not come in these circumstances.”

“Away from the fantasies of top advisors and the mysterious promises of some major embassies, can the energy portfolio be given to a guaranteed side and a single (power) plant be built, instead of burning the (central bank’s) reserves and eventually running out of them and plunging into the unknown?” Jumblat tweeted.

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Thursday lamented that Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “has once again declared himself president, prime minister and army chief at the same time.”

“He is ensnaring Lebanon’s people in a new adventure whose price they might pay without taking their permission,” Gemayel tweeted, referring to Nasrallah’s threatening of Israel with military escalation if a future deal over the disputed maritime border does not come in Lebanon's favor.

Israeli Energy Minister Karen Elharrar held talks Thursday with visiting U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein, in the presence of the head of the Israeli delegation to the indirect negotiations with Lebanon.

“I will continue to work to create an agreement that will protect Israel's strategic and security assets,” Elharrar tweeted after her meeting with Hochstein.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Thursday responded to a new statement issued by the Presidency.

“Mr. Premier appreciates what was mentioned in the presidential statement’s third clause in terms of disavowing the insults that some of the president’s close associates are making… He also lauds Mr. President’s keenness on not insulting the Premiership post,” Mikati’s press office said in a statement.

President Michel Aoun announced Thursday that he is “waiting for a new approach” from PM-designate Najib Mikati in light of the observations he had voiced over the proposed cabinet line-up.

“The dire need today is for a fully constitutional government that can take executive decisions, not for statements and leaks that further complicate things,” the Presidency said in a statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Thursday that a statement by Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has put an end to the possibility of reaching a settlement over the Line 23.

Nasrallah had threatened, in a televised speech on Wednesday, to "flip the table on the entire world" if Lebanon does not get allowed to benefit from its offshore oil and gas resources.

The Finance and Budget Committee approved Thursday a $150 million World Bank wheat loan, head of the Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan said.

Kanaan said the committee will press the Cabinet for a unified exchange rate in order to approve the 2022 state budget.

FPM chief Jebran Bassil said Thursday that the resistance is a strong point for Lebanon "if we know how to use it."

"We want to preserve national dignity and sovereignty," Bassil said in a short recorded video that he posted on his twitter account.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati had called President Michel Aoun last week to meet with him over the government formation, Mikati's press office said in a statement.

"We will get back to you shortly," Mikati's office quoted the chief of Presidential Protocol as saying. "But they haven't called back since," the statement said.