Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will submit to President Michel Aoun during his visit to Baabda on Wednesday a draft cabinet line-up based on an 18-minister format “unless some side intervenes to restore communication between the presidency” and Hariri, al-Jadeed TV said on Monday.

As the cabinet formation process faces hurdles, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Monday his party was right not to name PM-designate Saad Hariri as its candidate to form a new Lebanese government.

President Michel Aoun's press office said on Monday that the cabinet formation discussions are underway “strictly” between the President and PM-designate Saad Hariri, without any “interference” from third parties.

PM-designate Saad Hariri reportedly plans to submit to President Michel Aoun a draft of an 18-minister cabinet format to break the stalemate delaying the cabinet formation, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat reported on Monday.

Crisis-hit Lebanon has reportedly “wasted” a valuable opportunity by not benefiting from the momentum of the French initiative “at the right time,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan on Sunday warned that Lebanon is facing a “very dangerous juncture” and is approaching a “disastrous scene as to the coronavirus pandemic.”

Less than 50 protesters on Sunday marched to the French Embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut to denounce the anti-Mohammed cartoons and the stance of the French state.

The demonstrators raised banners that read: "Anything but Prophet Mohammed".

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi on Sunday issued a memo ordering a nationwide nighttime curfew and the lockdown of 115 towns across Lebanon in the face of soaring coronavirus cases.

Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Youssef Absi on Sunday deplored “the renewed talk about a minimized government in which the Melkite Greek Catholic sect would be represented by one minister.”

The Lebanese Democratic Party led by MP Talal Arslan on Sunday warned that “what the PM-designate is proposing is a dangerous game” and that “tampering with Druze representation is rejected.”