President Michel Aoun on Monday called, from Rome, for setting up a Vatican-sponsored Lebanon support fund and for boosting aid programs for Lebanon, the Presidency said.

The head of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Qu Dongyu, and the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program, David Beasley, both said that Aoun’s suggestion will be taken into consideration, the Presidency added.

UNIFIL on Monday marked the 44th anniversary of the U.N. mission’s establishment with its newly-appointed head and Force Commander, Major General Aroldo Lázaro, calling on the parties to make “meaningful steps” towards a sustainable peace.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Monday called for putting an end to “all the Lebanon-based political, military, security and media activities that harm the sovereignty, security and stability of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”

Noting in a statement that “the government is committed to restoring the normalcy of ties between Lebanon and the GCC nations,” Miqati pointed out that his recent phone call with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Nasser was part of his efforts in this regard.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said in an interview that his party has the ability to replace the Free Patriotic Movement as the leading Christian group in the country through the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“On the Christian level, I will say it like this for the first time: is the LF a substitute to the FPM? Yes! And I openly and loudly say it. Yes it is an alternative because the LF’s practices are totally opposite to the practices that we saw from the FPM while in power,” Geagea told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Monday, after meeting with Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit in Egypt, that he wants Lebanon to be an active member of the Arab League.

"Today, Lebanon is suffering from a disease. It must in its illness turn to friends and this is what we are doing today,” al-Rahi added.

President Michel Aoun re-invited Monday Pope Francis to visit Lebanon, urging him to continue supporting Lebanon, during a visit to the Vatican city.

"Lebanon is in dire need for support," Aoun said in a meeting with the Pope, adding that he does not want Lebanon to "pay the price" for the region's conflicts.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has said Lebanon can not be isolated from its neighboring Arab countries, welcoming a humanitarian French-Saudi initiative.

A French-Saudi fund had been decided in a meeting between Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, Miqati told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea snapped back Monday at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, after the latter said that “anyone who allies with the LF would be allying with the killers of the Tayyouneh ambush martyrs.”

“These remarks are wrong, seeing as all of the Military Court’s preliminary and complementary investigations have so far proven that there was no ambush in Tayyouneh. Unfortunately, Sayyed Nasrallah and his group are the ones who objected against the judge and obstructed the investigation, the same as they did in the port crime. I wish they would let the probe continue in order to unveil all the facts,” Geagea said.

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun on Monday filed charges against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, accusing him of illicit enrichment and money laundering, TV networks said.

She also filed charges against Salameh’s brother Raja, who is in custody, and against Ukrainian national Anna Kosakova for interfering in the alleged offenses.

The head of Hizbullah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, on Sunday admitted that the upcoming parliamentary elections will be a “very difficult” challenge to his party.