The appointment of ex-minister Hassan Diab as premier-designate has put an end to Washington’s perceived attempt to “exploit” the crisis and the protests in Lebanon, a senior Hizbullah official said on Sunday.

Warning that “some are seeking to ignite strife,” Hizbullah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said “America has failed, because betting on exploiting the domestic crisis and investing in it has reached a dead end, after it tried to take advantage of the crisis to achieve political gains.”

Unknown assailants hurled a Molotov cocktail overnight at a Christmas tree that is being set up on the main street of the northern town of Sir al-Dinniyeh, the National News Agency reported on Sunday.

The attack burned the tree as the attackers fled to an unknown destination, NNA said.

The nomination of Hassab Diab for the PM post was “plan B” after all efforts to secure the return of caretaker PM Saad Hariri failed, an MP of Speaker Nabih Berri’s bloc said on Sunday.

“Most of the protest movement’s groups have decided to give the PM-designate a chance to form his government in a manner that satisfies protesters on the streets,” MP Fadi Alameh of the Development and Liberation bloc said in a radio interview.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday urged protesters in all regions not to block the main roads during the holiday season.

“What we witnessed two days ago, when the Lebanese Army and security forces were pelted with stones during a protest, violates the dignity of the army and the dignity of citizens who believe in the Lebanese state,” al-Rahi lamented in his Sunday Mass sermon, referring to a protest by al-Mustaqbal Movement supporters against the appointment of Hassan Diab as PM-designate.

Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab held consultations Saturday with parliamentary blocs in which they discussed the shape of the future government and said afterward that legislators all had one concern: To get the country out of its "strangling" economic crisis.

Diab, a university professor and former education minister, will have to steer Lebanon out of its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. He's also taking office against the backdrop of ongoing nationwide protests against the country's ruling elite.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Saturday held talks with visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, David Hale, at his residence in al-Bayyada.

Lebanon's premier-designate Hassan Diab begins Saturday non-binding consultations with heads of parliamentary blocs in order to form Lebanon’s much-delayed government amid wide protests rejecting his designation.

Diab, a university professor and former education minister, will have to steer Lebanon out of its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. He's also taking office against the backdrop of ongoing nationwide protests against the country's ruling elite.

Speaker Nabih Berri said on Saturday that protest-hit Lebanon faces the risk of “economic and financial bankruptcy” if the formation of a new government is not accelerated amid an unprecedented economic crisis gripping the country, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Fresh clashes erupted Friday evening between the army and Mustaqbal Movement supporters in Beirut’s Corniche al-Mazraa area.

The confrontation erupted after troops reopened a key highway in the area. The protesters then retreated to the area’s internal streets and started hurling stones and firecrackers at the soldiers. They also started burning tires.

The French foreign ministry on Friday said that it is “up to the Lebanese officials” to form the new government, refusing to comment further on the appointment of Hassan Diab as PM-designate.

A spokeswoman for the ministry however said that the formation of the new government should respect “the public interest of all Lebanese.”