Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against selectivity and bias in the issue of conducting a forensic audit of the central bank’s accounts, days after President Michel Aoun urged the Lebanese to support him in what he called the forensic audit battle.

“The call for a forensic audit would be serious if it is comprehensive, not intentionally selective. And in the first place, there can be no forensic audit before the formation of the government,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

MP Mohammed al-Hajjar of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed Sunday that “there will be no government as long as there is a party that is obstructing and insisting on the ‘blocking one-third.’”

“President Michel Aoun and ex-minister Jebran Bassil are obstructing the formation process,” Hajjar said in a radio interview.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s press office on Saturday described as “fabricated” a report published in al-Akhbar daily claiming that the PM was behind the posopnemnet of caretaker PM Hassan Diab’s trip to Iraq.

The Presidency of the Council of Ministers announced late on Friday that the visit of caretaker PM Hassan Diab to Iraq was postponed at the request of Baghdad.

The Lebanese Armed Forces announced on Saturday the arrest of several suspects in Baalbek and Central Bekaa saying the suspects possessed drugs, weapons and smuggled goods.

Lebanon has provided an auditing firm with "updated" information for a stalled forensic audit of the central bank demanded by the international community, the finance ministry said Friday.

A German delegation on Friday unveiled a spectacular multi-billion-dollar project to rebuild Beirut port and its surroundings but admitted it was contingent on far-reaching government reforms.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, Hussam Zaki, emphasized on Friday that the Arab League backs the calls of Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi for the neutralization of Lebanon.

Lebanon’s money transfers abroad, its purchases of goods, and access to foreign exchange are all at risk to stop after correspondent banks abroad began to cut their financial relations with the Central Bank of Lebanon, al-Akhbar daily reported on Friday.

France and the European Union are reportedly preparing proposals that could result in an asset freeze and a travel ban on Lebanese politicians to push them to agree on a government to save the country from economic collapse, media reports said on Friday.