MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc announced Monday that “there is optimism regarding the formation of the government,” adding that “key obstacles” have been resolved.

In a radio interview, Moussawi identified the resolved hurdles as the one-third-plus-one share and the size of the government.

Several officials in Lebanon have been informed that Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil will travel Tuesday to Paris and that he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, al-Jadeed TV said.

Bassil is also expected to meet with General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Monday but the exact time of the meeting will not be announced for security reasons, al-Jadeed added.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis that need not delay resolving its conflict with Israel over their maritime border, and hence the resumption of UN-sponsored sea talks between the two, MTV reported on Monday.

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmy on Monday expected the investigation into the colossal Beirut port explosion to prove the flagrant extent of negligence that led to the catastrophe, the National News Agency reported.

Recent indicators show some serious “French” efforts aiming to ease the obstacles hampering the formation of a Lebanese government, media reports said on Monday.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has warned that Lebanon will face “dangerous circumstances” if political leaders do not embrace “true reforms.”

“Lebanon’s future is in the hands of the Lebanese,” the minister said in English in an interview with CNN.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said that it would be unreasonable for the Lebanese to “waste all their sacrifices and martyrs for the sake of domestic caprices and foreign schemes.”

“That’s why we invite all Lebanese for a moment of conscience in order to renew recognition of Lebanon as a final homeland, and to translate this recognition into ultimate allegiance to the Lebanese homeland and to an independent, legitimate and free state,” al-Rahi said in his Easter Mass sermon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea received overnight a phone call from Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

The National News Agency said al-Rahi called Geagea to inquire about his health after he contracted coronavirus.

President Michel Aoun on Sunday announced that “Lebanon’s president and people stand by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,” a day after several senior figures were detained and a half-brother to the monarch said he was under house arrest.

“Lebanon’s president and people stand by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the face of what might affect stability and safety in brotherly Jordan, which has always stood by Lebanon during the difficult circumstances,” Aoun said.

President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that naming the corrupt in person is the first real step towards fighting corruption in Lebanon.