Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said the new government is facing a “tough test” as he saluted the “peaceful uprising” of Lebanese youths.

“The new government is facing a tough test, seeing as it has embarked on a difficult risk, in the name of the people and the youths who lost confidence following successive disappointments from the politicians and officials,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

MP Alain Aoun of the Strong Lebanon bloc has suggested going to early parliamentary elections should the new government fail to halt the economic and financial deterioration.

“First, the deterioration in Lebanon should be halted and then recovery measures should begin,” Aoun said in a TV interview, warning that “the failure of the rescue process would affect entire Lebanon.”

Hundreds of people hit the streets of the Lebanese capital on Saturday to mark 100 days of anti-government demonstrations and denounce a new cabinet line-up.

A “fist of the revolution” unveiled on Friday in the southern town of Nabatieh was set on fire on Saturday, the National News Agency said.

Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi denied reports claiming that Dar el-Fatwa, the highest Sunni authority in Lebanon, has urged him to renounce the interior ministry portfolio, his media office said in a statement released on Saturday.

The statement said that Fahmi “denies reports circulated on social media that the Minister received a phone call before the government was lined-up from Dar el-Fatwa asking him to reject the ministerial seat.”

The new finance minister of debt-saddled Lebanon met on Saturday with an official from the International Monetary Fund for what he said was a "courtesy visit" and not bailout talks.

A U.S. official in Lebanon reportedly said “no one wants to see the country fall” and that assistance for the crisis-hit nation is closely related to its implementation of the needed reforms, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

The United States is closely “monitoring” the work of the new government in Lebanon, formed after three months of jubilant protests and a worsening financial crisis, United States-based satellite TV channel Alhurra reported on Saturday.

Residents of Beirut, Keserwan, Tripoli, Sidon and several other Lebanese region on Friday felt an earthquake that struck eastern Turkey, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Lebanon’s state-run National Center for Geophysics said “the earthquake felt by the Lebanese in several regions originated in Turkey, where a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit areas in eastern Turkey.”

Anti-government protesters in the southern city of Nabatieh on Friday unveiled a “fist of the revolution” statue to commemorate 100 days since the beginning of the October 17 popular uprising.

The ceremony was held amid tight security measures taken by the army and Internal Security Forces, as supporters of Hizbullah and the AMAL Movement staged a rival demo at the location, chanting slogans supportive of Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Speaker Nabih Berri.