Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi prepares to make a tour to Gulf countries and the Vatican in mid May, al-Markazia news agency reported on Friday.

Director of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Firass Abiad, said although the number of coronavirus cases needing ICU has dropped, faster vaccination remains a need in crisis-wracked Lebanon.

President Michel Aoun received an invitation from his Armenian counterpart to attend the anniversary of the Aremnian genocide on April 24, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Friday warned that Lebanon's “arbitrary” subsidization on basic products amid the nation's economic crisis is depleting the country's foreign currency reserves.

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab is to visit Doha later this week, in his first travel abroad since taking office, al-Akhbar daily reported on Friday.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri held talks Thursday in Moscow with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

A statement issued by Hariri’s press office said the discussions tackled “the latest developments in Lebanon and the region and the bilateral ties between the two countries.”

Caretaker Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar announced Thursday that smuggling to Syria is behind Lebanon’s gasoline shortage crisis.

“We demonstrated the reasons of the gasoline crisis, and it turned out to us that the main reason for the current scarcity is the smuggling to outside Lebanon due to the difference in prices between Lebanon and Syria,” Ghajar said after a meeting on the crisis that was chaired by Caretaker PM Hassan Diab.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Thursday criticized Judge Tarek al-Bitar’s decision to keep General Security Major Dawoud Fayyad in detention in the Beirut port blast case.

“Ever since Judge Bitar was appointed as investigative judge into the Beirut port blast case, I committed myself not to talk about the case and the arbitrary detention of officers, to give him a chance to look into the investigations and the file’s details and out of our confidence in his integrity,” Arslan said in a tweet.

The Kremlin announced that a telephone conversation had taken place between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who is on a working visit to Moscow, Hariri’s press office said on Thursday.

A senior U.S. official warned Thursday that Lebanese politicians who continue to block reforms in the crisis-hit country could face punitive actions by Washington and its allies.

U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs David Hale did not provide details on the nature of the potential actions. But appeared to refer to reports that the United States and its allies may impose sanctions on Lebanese politicians in order to force them to end a monthslong political deadlock and start badly needed reforms to fight corruption.