Qatar is expected to dispatch its foreign minister to Beirut this week as part of diplomatic flurry flocking into Lebanon for assistance after the colossal Beirut blast early in August.

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani is expected to arrive in Beirut within two days to meet with senior Lebanese officials, al-Joumhouria daily reported Monday.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed Sunday that he has suspended his efforts regarding the government formation process.

“I did everything in my capacity as to the issue of forming a government, but it turned out that one hand cannot clap,” Berri said in an interview carried by the National News Agency.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called for the removal of “all arms and explosives depots” from Lebanon’s residential areas, in the wake of the Beirut port blast that killed dozens, wounded thousands and devastated swathes of the capital.

“Let Lebanese authorities consider the Beirut port disaster an alarm bell and let them raid all arms and explosives depots and warehouses that exist illegally in the residential neighborhoods of cities, towns and villages,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

The Joint Palestinian Security Force at the al-Beddawi refugee camp has handed over a man suspected of being involved in the Kaftoun crime to the Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security Forces, the National News Agency said on Sunday.

Relief efforts arrived to Lebanon on Saturday this time coming from Italy, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

An Italian military ship loaded with medical equipment and food products arrived in support of those affected by the Beirut port explosion.

Judicial investigator into the Beirut port blast Judge Fadi Sawan issued two new arrest warrants on Friday, the National News Agency reported.

A two-week partial lockdown and nighttime curfew kicked off Friday in Lebanon after coronavirus cases increased sharply following an explosion in Beirut that killed and injured thousands of people.

Beirut is still bidding farewell to the victims of the port explosion that shook the city two weeks ago, the last of which was firefighter Joe Bou Saab and 15-year-old Elias El-Khoury, Asharq el-Awsat newspaper reported Friday.

Bou Saab was laid to rest Friday, while Khoury succumbed to his wounds on Thursday.

Hizbullah's emphatic defence of the political status quo in Lebanon has exposed it since the deadly Beirut blast to levels of public contempt and anger it was once shielded from.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan is set to lead a crisis cell meeting on coronavirus on Friday, after remarks that Lebanon made an agreement with the World Health Organization to reserve Lebanon’s share of a possible Russian COVID-19 vaccine.