Defense Minister Maurice Slim has left Beirut for Baghdad on an official visit to meet Iraqi officials.

Slim will hold talks Tuesday with his Iraqi counterpart Juma Inad at the defense ministry in Baghdad.

Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi on Monday signed a decree calling for parliamentary elections to be held in May 2022.

According to the decree, expats will cast their votes abroad on May 6 and May 8.

Free Patriotic Movement MP Alain Aoun said that any step that President Michel Aoun might take today “shouldn’t be considered as an escalation but would rather be for the benefit of the Lebanese.”

“The President’s stance, at its core, is not to take part in the (government’s) obstruction,” Aoun said, asking what would be more alarming, “to escalate or to remain in the situation we are in?”

The Transatlantic Leadership Network - TLN, a Washington D.C. based nonpartisan think-tank, has held its inaugural "Freedom of the Media" gala dinner and award ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

An award was presented to MTV Lebanon's Chairman and CEO, Michel El Murr, by TLN's President Dr. Daniel Hamilton and TLN's Vice President Dr. Sasha Toperich, who praised MTV Lebanon for its “investigative reporting on corruption, foreign meddling in Lebanon, including Hizbullah, and various government mishandlings that gained wide popularity, particularly amongst the Middle Eastern youth,” MTV said in a press release.

Yemeni Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Moammar al-Aryani has called on Lebanon to “declare a clear stance on Hizbullah’s aggression,” a day after the Saudi-led coalition accused Iran and Hizbullah of helping Yemen's Huthi rebels to launch missiles and drones at the kingdom.

The Lebanese “brothers” must exert “real pressure” on Hizbullah to compel it to “withdraw its experts and fighters and end the smuggling of arms to Yemen,” Aryani said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held talks Friday with visiting Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini, who was accompanied by a delegation and by his country’s ambassador to Lebanon.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Friday lashed out at the parties that are imposing their “unilateral will” on state institutions to the extent of “confining and paralyzing” them.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri extended Christmas greetings Thursday to the Lebanese, stressing that “we should get inspired from Christmas’ values.”

“To deserve Christmas and to live it, we should get rid of selfishness and grudges,” Berri said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Lebanon’s political leaders to “work together to implement reforms,” in tweets that follow his official visit to Lebanon. work together to implement reforms

The Higher Defense Council on Wednesday decided to extend the so-called Covid-19 state of general mobilization until March 31.

The Council also asked military and security agencies to maintain full preparedness to “secure a safe holidays period.”