Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lashed out at Lebanese politicians and called on them to put an end to the conditions and counter-conditions that are delaying the formation of the new government.

“The government is not for you, but rather for the people. The ministries are not for you, but rather for the people. The rule is not for you, but rather for the people. The institutions are not for you, but rather for the people. Enough with the preconditions that do not serve the country and the citizens but rather politicians’ interests,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is “continuing his efforts for speeding up the government’s formation,” Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad has said.

Al-Rahi is “meeting representatives of President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri,” Ghayyad added in a press interview.

The Lebanese Army Command - Orientation Directorate issued a communiqué on Saturday, in which it indicated that an Israeli enemy foot patrol violated the "Blue Line" in the locality of Khirbet Sheaib.

Israeli troops crossed the line marching an approximate 45 meters distance into Lebanese territories.

President Michel Aoun on Saturday saluted “all the workers in Lebanon” on Labor Day, as the country slides deeper in an unprecedented economic crisis.

Lebanon observes another three-day total lockdown on Saturday over Orthodox Easter in a move to control the spread of coronavirus cases during the holidays.

The United States formally begins withdrawing its last troops from Afghanistan Saturday, bringing its longest war nearer to an end but also heralding an uncertain future for a country in the tightening grip of an emboldened Taliban.

A ship prepared Friday to ferry dozens of containers of hazardous materials from Lebanon's capital to Germany, managers of a cleanup project said, months after disaster struck on the dockside. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will arrive in Beirut in the middle of next week on a two-day visit, Lebanese TV networks reported on Friday.

The reports come only a few hours after Le Drian said France had begun imposing entry restrictions on certain Lebanese figures as a sanction for their role in Lebanon's political crisis or corruption.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil has said that he would choose “Lebanon and its stability” over the presidential post, describing accusations that he wants to succeed his father-in-law in the country’s top post as a “myth.”

In an interview from Moscow with RT television, Bassil added that PM-designate Saad Hariri is demanded to form a new government.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil held talks Thursday in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“The (new) government is necessary but it will be insufficient should it lack the decision, will and ability to carry out reforms,” Bassil said at a press conference after the meeting.