Caretaker Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan on Friday asked Internal Security Forces Inspector General Col. Fadi Saliba to “continue the investigations that the ISF Directorate General is conducting into the incidents of the past 48 hours.”

Al-Hassan stressed that injured protesters can submit complaints with the ISF’s inspection department.

Hizbullah is exerting strenuous efforts to facilitate the formation of the new government and it might propose giving the industry portfolio to the Druze community in return for the social affairs portfolio in a bid to resolve this obstacle, MTV reported on Friday.

“Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab is meanwhile still insisting on keeping the number of ministers at 18,” MTV added.

Protesters blocked several main roads across Lebanon on Friday as unprecedented demonstrations against a political elite accused of corruption and incompetence entered their fourth month.

Dar el-Fatwa on Friday slammed reports claiming that Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Deryan is interfering in the formation of a government.

Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil will likely meet soon reportedly to resolve a new setback that delayed the formation of a new government that was expected to be announced this week, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters gathered outside the central bank in Hamra on Thursday evening and then marched in a procession through Beirut to the parliament building in the city’s center, where they called for an independent and immediate government.

The protesters then joined others who had blocked the Ring flyover, one of the main highways in Beirut.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday blasted MP Jamil al-Sayyed after the lawmaker accused him of protecting Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh for private financial interests.

“To Jamil al-Sayyed, the genius in economy, assassination, lying, fraud and deceit, the best thing for you is to shut up after you stole, looted and imported explosives with your friend (Michel Samaha). Don’t utter a single word,” Hariri tweeted.

Efforts to form a new government suffered a new setback Thursday evening, after optimism surged in the wake of a meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab.

“It seems that the government formation process has been put on hold and Marada Movement sources have said that it turned out that there are eight ministers who are loyal to (Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran) Bassil,” MTV reported.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday warned the upcoming government against sacking Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman.

“Let them try, I’m not Hassan” Diab, a defiant Hariri said, when told that there is an “inclination” to fire Othman.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman apologized to journalists and media outlets on Thursday following a new night of violent demos that involved assaults on journalists at the hands of ISF members.

“I sincerely apologize to the media and to the journalists who were covering the events yesterday outside the Helou barracks,” Othman said at a rare press conference.