Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday announced a memorandum on “Lebanon and Active Neutrality”, in a press conference held in Diman, following a series of stances calling for neutrality in recent weeks.

Below is the memorandum’s full English-language text as distributed by the patriarchate:

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency has confirmed four new COVID-19 deaths in camps in Lebanon, calling for vigilance in observing hygiene measures as infections rise across the country.

"During the past 24 hours, four deaths have been recorded among Palestine refugees" in Lebanon, UNRWA said in a statement.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Sunday that the LF will seek a parliamentary petition in order to push for an international probe into the cataclysmic August 4 explosion in Beirut.

“As of Monday, we will begin collecting signatures on a parliamentary petition asking the government to endorse an international panel of inquire into the crime. At the same time we will send this petition to the U.N., seeing as this is the only way to reach the truth,” Geagea said following talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Diman.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against the formation of a so-called “national unity government” that would not reflect “real unity.”

“Let everyone know that there can be no national unity government without real unity nor a rescue government without rescuer figures,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday launched a counter-attack against those who hit out at the FPM in the wake of the August 4 catastrophic explosion.

“Although in 2013 we did not have direct responsibilities related to the incident, accusations and incitement have been exclusively targeted against us,” Bassil decried in a televised speech.

President Michel Aoun has said that “some time is needed” for results to start emerging from Lebanon’s probe into the devastating August 4 explosion in Beirut.

“We had the will to reach a quick result in the probe into the blast that occurred at Beirut port on August 4, but we eventually realized that things are intertwined and require some time,” said Aoun an in interview with French news channel BFMTV.

US envoy David Hale called Saturday for a "transparent and credible" probe into the monster blast at Beirut's port, as FBI investigators headed for Lebanon.

Hizbulah will ignore the verdict due next week by a UN-backed court on the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafic Hariri, the movement's leader said Friday.

Aid planes arrived from Iraq, Russia and Kuwait on Saturday as part of relief aid flooding into the crisis-hit country after the colossal blast that flattened much of the capital Beirut, killing at least 181 and wounding more than 6,000.

An Iraqi plane and two other Russian airplanes landed at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, the National News Agency reported.

Firas Abiad, director general of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, warned on Saturday that with coronavirus cases rising in Lebanon mainly after the Beirut blast, the hospital could be forced to shut down temporarily until it regains control.