Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday scheduled a Tuesday parliamentary session for the election of a new speaker, deputy speaker and the members of the Parliament Bureau, the National News Agency said.

The session will be held at 11am at parliament’s building in Beirut’s Nejmeh Square, NNA added.

The Internal Security Forces on Thursday announced foiling an attempt to smuggle a large number of people by sea to Italy.

It said the bid was thwarted after the ISF obtained information that a ring of individuals was equipping and renovating a boat in the Dbaye area.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday pledged that he will continue to “fight corruption and oversee the completion of the forensic audit into the financial accounts of the central bank and the other official administrations and institutions.”

He added that his objective is to “identify the real reasons that led to the deterioration of the financial and economic situations in the country.”

The members of the U.N. Security Council have welcomed the holding of legislative elections in Lebanon as scheduled on May 15, despite what they called the "challenging circumstances."

"These elections were key to enabling the Lebanese people to exercise their civil and political rights. The members of the Security Council commended the technical support provided by the United Nations, the European Union, the International Organization of La Francophonie, the Arab League and other international and local observers throughout the election process and in close coordination with the government of Lebanon. They took note of the findings and recommendations made by observer missions," a U.N. statement said.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday cautioned rivals anew that their top concern should be the country’s economic and financial collapse, not his group’s controversial arsenal of weapons.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday marked 22 years since Israel’s withdrawal from the South by urging “unity” among the Lebanese.

Tensions have built up between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad over two electricity files that the latter had asked to withdraw from a Cabinet session's agenda on Friday.

Miqati said in a statement Tuesday that Fayyad must be "experiencing a real crisis within his ministry that makes him do something and its opposite."

MP Jamil al-Sayyed held talks Tuesday at the Baabda Palace with President Michel Aoun.

“The continuation of the caretaker government until the presidential elections is a conspiracy against the people, the President and the presidential tenure,” Sayyed said after the meeting.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Tuesday noted that after Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, the issue of “change” and “the issue of Hizbullah” are “in the hands of the Lebanese.”

“The Lebanese elections might be a good step, but it is too early to say that,” the Minister said in Davos.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan on Tuesday decried “a black point in the history of Saudi diplomacy,” in response to remarks by Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari about the pro-Syria politicians who lost their seats in the latest parliamentary elections.

“We have always been accustomed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a backer of Lebanon and all Lebanese throughout history, and no matter how much circumstances changed, it maintained its cordial rhetoric toward us,” Arslan said in a statement.