Official sources at the presidential palace hinted Thursday that Baabda wants the latest initiative to resolve the cabinet crisis to succeed, as they criticized PM-designate Saad Hariri for traveling to the UAE.

“The train of the initiative took off from Baabda but the Center House stop seems to be closed and the person in charge of it has traveled,” the sources told the privately-run Central News Agency.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday reminded that his calls for demarcating the Lebanese-Syrian sea border had fallen on deaf ears.

“From July 2010 until 2017, when I was energy minister and foreign minister, I sent more than 20 official letters to officials in Lebanon and Syria to urge them to resolve the sea border problem between the two countries,” Bassil tweeted.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday warned that the country will collapse if the new government is not formed soon.

“Yes, unfortunately, Lebanon faces the threat of collapse if the situation remains as it is without a government,” Berri said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday urged Lebanese authorities to take urgent action to prevent Lebanon from “losing 750 square kilometers of our northern territorial waters.”

“In 2014, the Assad government objected to Lebanon’s oil and gas exploration, and in May 2017, the Lebanese government sent the Assad government a memo demanding communication to unify the vision regarding the border but it received no answer,” Geagea said in a televised address.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday met in Baabda with a visiting Iraqi delegation led by Health and Environment Minister Hassan al-Tamimi.

“We appreciate Iraq’s approval of Lebanon’s request to be supplied with raw oil in return for medical services,” Aoun said during the meeting.

The UK's Chargé d'Affaires in Lebanon, Martin Longden, on Wednesday emphasized "the ever more pressing need" for the formation of a new government in Lebanon.

"Agreed with Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab on the ever more pressing need for a new Flag of Lebanon government, capable of reform," Longden tweeted following talks with Diab at the Grand Serail.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah revealed Wednesday that there are “serious and collective efforts” to form a new government in Lebanon.

“Do not despair” regarding the government’s formation, Nasrallah added, addressing the Lebanese people in a televised speech.

Iraqi Health Minister Hassan Tamimi arrived Wednesday in Lebanon on an official visit.

The National News Agency said Tamimi arrived aboard a plane belonging to Iraqi Airways and carrying medical aid.

President Michel Aoun has expressed his concern over the threats that Lebanon and even the Lebanese “entity” are facing.

In an interview with al-Jadeed TV, Aoun said that his warning in September that Lebanon was headed to “hell” was not a slip of the tongue.

An Iranian delegation led by Shiite cleric Hamid Shahriari held talks Wednesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

Shahriari is the general secretary of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought. He was named to the post by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.