Lebanon's caretaker energy minister Thursday warned the country would plunge into "total darkness" at the end of the month if no money was secured to buy fuel for power stations.

Power cuts have been common in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, forcing Lebanese to pay a second power bill to private generators for three to 12 hours each day during the outages.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Hajjar said Thursday that PM-designate Saad Hariri is ready to meet with President Michel Aoun on the government formation process if the latter has something new on the file

“The PM-designate could head to Baabda if anything new happened,” said Hajjar.

President Michel Aoun and caretaker Defense Minister Zeina Akar discussed the latest security developments during a meeting at Baabda Palace, the National News Agency reported Thursday.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri congratulated the Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, on the Libyan lawmakers decisions to grant confidence to the Government of National Unity, Hariri’s press office said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Firass Abiad, Director of Lebanon’s main coronavirus hospital, RHUH, in a series of tweets on Thursday stressed that self isolation for individuals who retract COVID-19 virus is key to break the chain of transmission and help control the virus spread.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) Pre-Trial Judge, Daniel Fransen, will hold a sixth Status Conference on 24 March 2021 in the Ayyash Case, which relates to the 2004-2005 bomb attacks on George Hawi, Marwan Hamadeh and Elias Murr.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has held a “positive” meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and “there is hope that the government might be formed soon,” Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad said.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri returned Tuesday evening to Beirut after a visit to the United Arab Emirates during which he met with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.  

The Russian Foreign Ministry meanwhile announced in a statement that “views on how to put an end to the tense situation in Lebanon were thoroughly discussed, with emphasis on the importance of rapidly ending the social and economic crisis by forming a capable mission-driven government of technocrats.”

Army units started reopening blocked roads Wednesday morning following “the tragic accidents that happened and the violations and out of keenness on citizens’ safety,” the army announced on Twitter.

The army did not elaborate on the nature of the “accidents and violations” but two people were killed when their car crashed into a truck that was being used to block a road in the North. Social media reports also said that a soldier was killed in a traffic accident related to roadblocks.

The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc on Tuesday described the road-blocking protests engulfing Lebanon as a “coup” against President Michel Aoun’s “reformist project.”

“The past days have witnessed exploitation of people’s pain for political motives, and the practices and slogans reflect a coup-like situation against the president, his position and what he represents as well as against the bloc that has been struggling alongside him,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly e-meeting.