President Michel Aoun on Wednesday stressed that there should be no “elimination or discrimination” in the cabinet formation process.

In a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Baabda, Aoun called for respecting “the norms of the constitution and the National Pact on which the Lebanese system is based” in order to “overcome this crisis.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassi is still in Lebanon and did not travel Tuesday to Paris, contrary to the latest media reports, sources close to him said.

Bassil has however “received an invitation from the Elysee to visit Paris and his travel is hinging on a phone call to inform him of the date of a meeting whose nature is yet to be defined,” the sources told LBCI TV.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was informed Tuesday by Papal Ambassador to Lebanon, Monsignor Joseph Spiteri, that Pope Francis will meet him at the Vatican on April 22, Hariri’s press office said.

Hariri had requested the meeting around two weeks ago, the office added.

Representatives of Banque du Liban -- Lebanon’s central bank -- met Tuesday via Zoom with officials from the Finance Ministry and Alvarez & Marsal and agreed to provide the New York-based firm with more documents and information to allow it to conduct a forensic audit requested by the Lebanese government, the National News Agency said.

The meeting was also attended by the government’s commissioner to the central bank.

President Emmanuel Macron should freeze suspect assets held by Lebanese officials in France to break a "political-economic mafia" that has plunged Lebanon into crisis and misery, an open letter said Tuesday.

Former defense minster Yacoub Sarraf on Tuesday testified before Judge Tarek al-Bitar, the lead investigative judge in the Beirut port blast case.

In a statement, Sarraf said he had personally requested to testify in order to unveil “important information” that he possesses regarding the case.

The Appeals Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has found by majority that Defense Counsel representing the convicted Accused Salim Ayyash in absentia have no standing to appeal the Trial and Sentencing Judgments issued by Trial Chamber I in the Ayyash et al. case, the STL said on Tuesday.  

Lebanon received on Tuesday 50 thousand doses of the Chinese-developed Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, the National News Agency said.

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi met with Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi on Tuesday and voiced “optimism” on the government formation.

Lebanon's vaccine rollout is at risk of marginalising refugees and migrant workers who make up a third of the crisis-hit country's population, Human Rights Watch warned on Tuesday.