A stormy weather accompanied with rain and snow has been battering Lebanon since Wednesday damaging homes, blockading roads and flooding major highways.

The repatriation of a new batch of Syrian refugees from Lebanon has been postponed on Thursday because of bad weather, the National News Agency reported.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement official ex-MP Mustafa Alloush on Wednesday lamented that “all the attempts to protect the Presidency from the pettiness of the son-in-law have failed,” in a jab at Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, who is President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law.

“All what we hope for today on Christmas Day is mercy for Lebanon in the face of the maliciousness of the devil and his greed for swallowing everything and depriving the Lebanese of welfare and hope,” Alloush tweeted.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday lashed out at caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri over his latest remarks and announced that the new government will be a “government of experts.”

Speaking to reporters in Bkirki after a closed-door meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the sidelines of Christmas Day mass, Aoun hoped Lebanon will “manage to overcome its current crisis” and that the Lebanese will have a new government as a “New Year’s gift.”

Ex-interior minister and Beirut MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Tuesday said Iran has welcomed the designation of new PM Hassan Diab which proves that the latter “does not represent the Lebanese or the Sunni community in Beirut.”

A group of students staged a sit-in near Lebanon’s central bank in Hamra protesting the bank’s “financial and economic policies,” as the nation faces its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The protesters voiced calls for “change,” asserting refusal to pay taxes, demanding that levies be imposed on “profits and insurance."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said in his Christmas message on Tuesday that officials have brought Lebanon to economic and financial collapse and the Lebanese to poverty.

Lebanon’s demonstrators clearly conveyed to PM-designate Hassan Diab that they are not ready to extend support, or accept a PM designated by the “Shiite duo” (Hizbullah and AMAL Movement) and their allies, the Kuwaiti As-Siyasah newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri said there is nothing wrong with forming a “one-sided” government if the PM-designate Hassan Diab fails to convince all political parties to participate in the cabinet he is about to form, media reports said on Tuesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has warned that the Chouf and Aley regions and the entire country are “on the brink of hunger” due to the dire economic crisis.

“The economy is on the verge of collapse if it is not already collapsing. Lebanon cannot continue on the same path it has followed for tens of years – a country of services, tourism, hotels, restaurants and banks without production – this is unhealthy,” said Jumblat in a phone call with a number of Lebanese expats in the U.S. and Canada, according to Lebanon’s official news agency.