France’s new ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, has reportedly been tasked with following up on Macron’s initiative towards Lebanon, al-Liwaa daily reported on Friday.

Quoting a western diplomat on condition of anonymity, the daily said that “the Elysee has tasked Grillo, who arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, to pursue talks with representatives of the country’s top political blocs and parties whom Macron had met at the Pine Residence on September 2, after which an agreement to form a mission government made of specialists was reached.”

President Michel Aoun on Thursday lashed out at what he called the “intransigence in stances” and “the absence of self-evaluation.”

“It is known that nations that lose their critical sense and refrain from reevaluating their behavior are doomed to backwardness and cannot build themselves or keep up with the times,” Aoun tweeted.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri announced Thursday that his nomination for the PM post would not be a “favor from anyone,” noting that he has a major parliamentary bloc and known representation.

“There are three projects in the country -- that of Hizbullah and the Amal Movement which is linked to foreign forces, another that wants to pull Lebanon out of this crisis and works according to the ‘Lebanon first’ principle, and a third for overbidders who have brought the country to its current state,” Hariri said in a live interview on Lebanon’s MTV.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday snapped back at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea over a tweet related to the electoral law.

A fugitive was on Thursday shot dead at an army checkpoint in the northern region of Akkar, the military said.

The UK Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Sir Philip Barton, paid a virtual visit to Lebanon in which he relayed the UK's "ongoing and longstanding support to the people of Lebanon" and called on Lebanese leaders to "put their personal interests aside and urgently form a new government," the British embassy said on Thursday.

He was briefed by Country Director and Representative of the World Food Program in Lebanon Abdallah al-Wardat, World Health Organization Representative in Lebanon Dr. Iman Shankiti and World Bank Regional Director Middle East Saroj Kumar Jha, on what the U.N. is doing to help Lebanon's many challenges.

The Finance and Budget parliamentary committee led by MP Ibrahim Kanaan discussed the capital control law on Thursday, and decided to form a committee to find a solution that would help secure liquidity in Lebanon’s banks amid a financial crisis gripping the country.

“A capital control law should have been approved since October 2019 (when the financial crisis emerged) to end preferences in dealing with depositors,” said Kanaan.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian declared that his country will organize a conference on humanitarian aid for Lebanon during the month of November, media reports said Thursday.

The Lebanese army arrested 14 individuals who had been roaming the town of Harabta Valley in North Bekaa possessing weapons and ammunition in their vehicles, the Army Command-Orientation Directorate said in a statement on Thursday.

Ex-PM Najib Miqati on Wednesday announced that he nominates ex-PM Saad Hariri to lead a techno-political government comprised of 14 specialists and six political ministers of state.