Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat asked Saturday for the dismissal of Energy Minister Walid Fayyad.

In a tweet Jumblat said "it is time to dismiss the minister", sarcastically accusing him of wandering through capitals, restaurants and nightclubs.

Energy Minister Walid Fayyad noted Thursday that the World Bank has not refused to finance Lebanon’s U.S.-backed plan for importing gas and electricity from Egypt and Jordan via Syria, adding that the Bank is still studying the plan’s “political feasibility.”

“The contract with Jordan has been signed, but it needs to be ratified by Cabinet. The contract was signed and we did our duty, but the delay lies in financing,” Fayyad said.

Judge Nicolas Mansour, first investigating judge at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, ordered on Thursday the seizure of all the assets of Riad Salameh's brother, Raja.

The memo was sent to the ministry of finance through the public prosecution.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday slammed the rival Lebanese Forces party as a “militia” that wants to “impose its conditions on the Foreign Ministry” in the distribution of polling stations abroad.

“Everyone knows and acknowledges the effort that the Foreign Ministry has exerted to facilitate expat voting, from increasing the number of polling centers from 116 to 205 and polling stations from 232 to 598, in conjunction with putting a unified standard for all countries, which turned every polling center into a megacenter comprising polling stations for all of Lebanon’s electoral districts,” Bassil said in a tweet.

Global shares were mixed in choppy trading Thursday, as inflation worries and the war in Ukraine left investors cautiously optimistic.

European shares were mostly higher in early trading after a mixed session in Asia. Oil prices advanced and U.S. futures were higher.

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.