Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday issued a stern warning against any "tampering" with the spring parliamentary elections.

Lebanon's two main power plants have been forced to shut down after running out of fuel, leaving the small country with no government-produced power.

Lebanon is grappling with a crippling energy crisis made worse by its dependency on fuel imports. Erratic power supplies have put hospitals and essential services in crisis mode. The Lebanese increasingly depend on private operators that also struggle to secure supplies amid an unprecedented crash of the national currency.

Lebanon's national electricity grid totally collapsed on Saturday, after the al-Zahrani and Deir Amar power plants stopped operating due to a lack of diesel, LBCI television said.

The two power plants' separation from the grid lowered national power production to below 200 megawatts forcing the collapse.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday announced that Tehran will continue to send fuel shipments to Lebanon via Hizbullah, while noting that his country is also ready to provide Lebanon with medicine and other needs.

“We will help brotherly Lebanon overcome its crisis,” Abdollahian said at a press conference at the end of a two-day visit to Lebanon.

MP and Ex-minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq’s lawyer Naoum Farah filed on Friday morning a lawsuit before the Criminal Court of Cassation in Beirut to dismiss lead investigator into Beirut’s port blast, Judge Tarek Bitar, from the probe due to so-called "legitimate suspicion."

The Court of Appeals had turned down Monday requests to replace Bitar following a week-long suspension after al-Mashnouq, suspected of negligence leading to the tragedy, filed a lawsuit to replace the judge.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met Friday with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and discussed the latest political developments in Lebanon and the region.

“Abdollahian has confirmed the firmness of Iran’s position and its support for Lebanon on all levels,” Hizbullah said in a statement.

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col on Friday chaired a special Tripartite meeting with senior officers of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Israeli army at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura.

Major General Del Col tackled the "serious breaches" in the cessation of hostilities on 4, 5, and 6 August, a UNIFIL statement said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati heading a ministerial delegation met Friday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

The delegation included the ministers of information, justice, telecom and tourism -- the four Maronite ministers in the new government.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Thursday that Iran is ready to rebuild Beirut port and that Iranian firms can build two power plants in Lebanon within 18 months.

He stated in a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Abdullah Bou Habib that “Iranian specialized companies are willing to build two power plants with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts in Beirut and the South within 18 months.”

Long queues returned to Lebanon’s gas stations on Thursday amid a delay in the issuance of the weekly prices schedule by the Ministry of Energy.

The delay has been blamed on a rise in the price of oil globally and on a surge in the dollar exchange rate on the black market in Lebanon.