Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz addressed President Michel Aoun on Twitter on Monday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called for the formation of “an extraordinary salvation government that can revive the country and gain domestic, Arab and international confidence.”

The United States was about to impose sanctions Friday on PM-designate Saad Hariri before postponing its decision, a Free Patriotic Movement lawmaker said on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday pledged that the United States will continue to support the Lebanese people.

“Best wishes to the people of Lebanon on the republic’s 77th anniversary of independence,” he said in a tweet.

There is a possibility to seek the judiciary’s intervention in order to oblige the central bank to submit the documents requested for a forensic audit into its accounts, caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem has said.

The U.S. has sent a long-range bomber on a short notice into the Middle East in a show of force that aims to “reassure U.S. partners and allies.”

“U.S. Air Force B-52H ‘Stratofortress’ aircrews assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing, Minot Air Force Base, N.D. (North Dakota), conducted a short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East on Nov. 21 to deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies,” a U.S. Central Command statement said.

Hadath municipality advised caution on Saturday warning local residents to be alert after the mass escape of prisoners from a near Baabda prison.

French envoy Patrick Durel reportedly asked Hizbullah to ease the strained position of his ally, MP Jebran Bassil, encouraging him to facilitate the government formation mission of PM-designate Saad Hariri, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Hizbullah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem described as “unacceptable” the reasons that compelled the withdrawal of Alvarez and Marsal from running forensic audits into the central bank’s accounts.

A mass escape from a detention center in Baabda took place on Saturday at dawn where 69 people managed to flee, including five who later died in a car accident on a nearby road, media reports said.