Lebanon will reportedly receive a new batch of the COVID-19 vaccine doses from Brussels on Saturday afternoon, MTV television station reported.

The Free Patriotic Movement issued a statement on Saturday saying the formation of a government in Lebanon and conducting forensic audit into the central bank accounts are two top “priorities” needed to handle the crisis in Lebanon.

Lebanon will enter phase two of easing a four-stage lockdown on Monday, one week after it launched its vaccination campaign against COVID-19.

The Emirates News Agency (WAM) announced that the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received at Qasr Al Shati' Palace Friday Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri who is visiting the state.

Hariri’s press office released an English-langauge statement and said:

Lebanon's top judicial body on Friday named a new judge to lead the investigation into last year's massive explosion at Beirut's port, the National News Agency said, a day after his predecessor was removed following legal challenges by former ministers he had accused of negligence that led to the blast.

The Higher Judicial Council named Judge Tarek al-Bitar as the new prosecutor after he was proposed for the post by caretaker Minister of Justice Marie-Claude Najem, NNA said.

Relatives of the Beirut port blast victims held a protest for the second day on Friday and blocked traffic in Riad el-Solh highway after a decision that recused judge Fadi Sawwan off the case.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat encouraged the Lebanese to take the Covid-19 vaccine amid a nearly low turnout since the inoculation campaign kicked off in Lebanon on Sunday.

The Internal Security Forces arrested three suspects involved in smuggling people through Tripoli’s al-Abdeh shore area to Cyprus, the ISF said in a statement on Friday.

Despite intensifying foreign and Arab calls urging political leaders in Lebanon to speed a much-needed government, “domestic hurdles” stand in the way of any progress, al-Joumhouria daily reported Friday.

The Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz replied to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest remarks saying that Lebanon is going to “tremble,” and Hizbulah will pay a “terrible price" if Israel is forced to enter a military confrontation.