Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Wednesday noted that Thursday's parliamentary session is "illegitimate."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday announced that his party’s bloc will boycott a parliamentary session scheduled for Thursday and dedicated to discussing a controversial parliamentary petition aimed at prosecuting three MPs summoned by Judge Tarek al-Bitar in the port blast probe.

"We submitted a parliamentary petition for holding a parliamentary session for looking into the investigative judge's request for lifting immunity off some MPs, but we were surprised by the call for a session tomorrow according to Article 22, not to look into the investigative judge's request but rather for looking into an illegal petition signed by some MPs to take the investigation to another track," Geagea said at a press conference.

Lebanon has been plunged into darkness while hospitals and bakeries have sounded the alarm in connection with the growing diesel shortage crisis.

As Lebanon’s biggest serums factory announced that it has stopped its manufacturing operations due to lack of diesel and some hospitals said that they will soon stop operating, the association of flour mill owners issued a statement saying that several mills have closed due to the same reason.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati has stressed that he will not form a government that resembles the previous governments.

“I know that the mission is very difficult and that my designation has become the only hope, and I have made this step in order to form a government and not something else, but I will not form a government that is similar to the previous ones,” Miqati told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

MP Mario Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement announced Wednesday that “there will be no government in the near future.”

“The opposition camp is trying to waste time and it only wants this presidential tenure to come to an end, but what’s happening is a crime against Lebanon and its people,” Aoun said in an interview with Radio Voice of All Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday hit out at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah over his latest remarks on the port blast case.

“Some of the accused who have bad intentions are promoting the idea that those who caused the port blast were Muslims and that those affected were Christians and this is not true. Those promoting these remarks are seeking to protect themselves,” Geagea said at a press conference.

President Michel Aoun called the Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi Tuesday to condemn the political and social media campaign against him, stressing that insults against the patriarchal seat are rejected.

Aoun emphasized during the call that "freedom of opinion and expression is protected under the constitution” and condemned “defamation and abuse.”

U.S. President Joseph Biden has announced nearly $100 million in new humanitarian assistance for Lebanon.

“This assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State will help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its compounding socioeconomic impacts on the Lebanese people. The funding will also support Syrian refugees sheltering in Lebanon,” a U.S. statement said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his "deep concern" about the recent escalation between Hizbullah and Israel across the Blue Line, "including rocket fire into Israel and return air strikes and artillery fire into Lebanon," the U.N. said.

"The Secretary-General calls on all parties to exercise utmost restraint and to actively engage with UNIFIL's liaison and coordination mechanisms," the U.N. said in a statement.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lamented Sunday that “every hour of power rationing by the power plants costs the dollar reserves 32% more,” seeing as the power supply deficit is being covered by privately-owned neighborhood generators.