EU Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf held talks Thursday with Prime Minister Hassan Diab at the Grand Serail and noted that the European Union’s assistance to Lebanon hinges on the implementation of economic reforms.

The meeting was held in the presence of Environment and Administrative Development Minister Demianos Qattar.

Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan condemned the massive acts of “sabotage” that were witnessed in downtown Beirut yesterday evening, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

The Mufti utterly rejected acts of vandalism against private and public property, saying “infiltrators have smashed shops, uprooted trees and violated private and public property.”

Former Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil attended the elite annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss village Davos despite social media cries telling the forum to have him “uninvited.”

The National News Agency on Thursday said Bassil, who is also head of the Free Patriotic Movement, took part in two dialogue sessions, one on the situation in Syria and one that tackled the situation in the Middle East.

Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni on Thursday said that around 4 to 5 billion dollars will be requested from international donor countries to finance purchases of wheat, fuel and medicines in crisis-hit Lebanon, according to media reports.

Named as new minister on Tuesday, Wazni said that Lebanon is looking to secure 4-5 billion dollars in soft loans to finance the purchase of the country’s needs of wheat, fuel and medicines in light of a dollar shortage crisis.

Clashes in downtown Beirut between protesters and police on Wednesday left 86 individuals injured, according to a toll compiled by the Lebanese Red Cross.

The United States has called on Lebanon's new government to enact serious reforms to tackle the twin challenges of a collapsing economy and angry street protests.

"The test of Lebanon's new government will be its actions and its responsiveness to the demands of the Lebanese people to implement reforms to fight corruption," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at anti-government protesters in central Beirut on Wednesday afternoon, after some of them hurled stones firecrackers and uprooted trees and began dismantling a huge security barrier outside Nejmeh Square.

The area had witnessed overnight clashes during a demo rejecting the country’s new government.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Wednesday that the new government which was formed overnight Tuesday has the capability to pull the country out of its multi-faceted crisis.

“With its competent and specialist ministers, the government has the ability to come up with visions and programs that can be a cornerstone for overcoming the current crisis on the condition that there will no time waste,” Berri said during his weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting with lawmakers.

Lebanon’s new finance minister Ghazi Wazni on Wednesday said that it will be “difficult, if not impossible,” to return the dollar exchange rate to its previous state on the parallel market.

“The dollar exchange rate dropped to LBP 2,000 because a new government represents a confidence factor, but it will be difficult, if not impossible, to return to the official exchange rate” set by the central bank, Wazni, who is a well-known financial expert, said in remarks to al-Jadeed TV.

The new government on Wednesday formed a ministerial panel tasked with drafting the Cabinet’s Policy Statement.

The committee is headed by Prime Minister Hassan Diab and comprise the deputy PM and the ministers of finance, foreign affairs, justice, economy and trade, environment and administrative development, information, youth and sport, telecom, industry, and social affairs.