U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea announced Tuesday that she had a “positive discussion” with Energy Minister Walid Fayyad, while denying claims by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about the fate of Lebanon's U.S.-sponsored energy deals with each of Egypt and Jordan.

“I am encouraged when I hear about the continued progress on these regional energy deals. It is a long and complicated process, and I would urge the audiences out there to not believe the naysayers who would have you believe that there is no progress,” Shea said after the talks, apparently responding to Nasrallah’s remarks.

Ex-PM Fouad Saniora on Tuesday officially announced that he will not nominate himself for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

At a press conference, Saniora added that his decision is aimed at “making way for competent and new faces,” while noting that he will be “fully involved” in the elections in terms of backing certain electoral lists.

The negotiations with the International Monetary Fund have not stopped and "things are going well," Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Shami's office said.

Shami's office negated, in a statement Tuesday, media reports that said the negotiations had stopped and that no results have been reached.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday lamented that the Arab countries have “abandoned” Lebanon due to “the absurd statements of top leaders against the Gulf countries.”

“Amid this suffocating social and economic crisis that Lebanon is going through, today we are bearing the price of the Arab countries’ abandonment of us,” Jumblat tweeted.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday denied a media report claiming that he has sent an admonishing message to Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan over his “siding with” ex-PM Fouad Saniora in his endeavor to “inherit the House of Hariri and al-Mustaqbal Movement.”

“In line with its habit of fabricating news, al-Akhbar newspaper today published a report that is full of lies about what it called ‘an admonishing message from Hariri to the Grand Mufti,’” Hariri’s press office said in a statement.

Today, Tuesday, doors will close for candidacy for the parliament elections on May 15.

A low turnout is expected in the Sunni community, as former prime minister Saad Hariri's political exit created a vacuum and a need for a new mantle.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati officially announced Monday that he will not run for the upcoming parliamentary elections, as he called for heavy participation in the polls.

“Because I believe in the inevitability of change and in the need to make way for the new generation… I announce that I will not nominate myself for the parliamentary elections, wishing success for everyone,” Miqati said in a televised address.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stressed Monday emphasized that the parliamentary elections will be held on time on May 15, as he warned of foreign attempts to “change Lebanon’s identity” through the elections.

“We stress that the elections will be held on May 15 after the fall of all the amendment, postponement and procrastination attempts,” Berri said in a televised address to announce Amal Movement’s candidates for the elections.

On March 14, that marks the date of the anti-Syrian 2005 Cedar Revolution, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea launched the LF's electoral campaign.

"We want and we can" Geagea said, urging the Lebanese to vote for the LF, after a series of teasing billboards said that "some can but don't want to," and "some want to but can't."

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit urged Monday the international community to support Lebanon.

He mentioned, after a meeting with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Palace, the world's "double standards" in dealing with the Ukrainian crisis and with the Lebanese crisis.