Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil reportedly invited IMF officials for talks on potentials to secure a “safe landing” for a worsening economic crisis in Lebanon, Nidaa al-Watan daily reported on Thursday.

Lebanon has been paralysed by two months of protests demanding an overhaul of the entire political system.

MP Sethrida Geagea of the Lebanese Forces bloc on Wednesday lauded caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s decision to withdraw his nomination for the PM post as a “wise national stance.”

Geagea said Hariri rejected to head a government not comprised of experts because it “would not meet the demands of the Lebanese people in this critical period in Lebanon economically and financially.”

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Wednesday lauded caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s decision to withdraw his nomination for the PM post, urging him to suggest a “credible and capable” candidate.

“We appreciate the responsible stance that Mr. Prime Minister Saad Hariri took by announcing that he is no longer nominated to head the next government and that he will go to the binding parliamentary consultations tomorrow,” Bassil said in a written statement.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday withdrew his nomination for the PM post and stressed that Thursday’s binding parliamentary consultations to pick a new PM “should not be postponed under any excuse.”

“Ever since I tendered my resignation 50 days ago in response to the scream of the Lebanese, I have strenuously sought to fulfill their demand of forming a government of experts, which I believe that it alone can address the dangerous social and economic crisis that our country is facing,” Hariri said in a written statement.

Speaker Nabih Berri has advised caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri to communicate with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil over the FPM’s participation in the new government, al-Jadeed TV reported on Wednesday.

“But so far no meeting has been scheduled between Hariri and Bassil,” al-Jadeed said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan held phone talks Wednesday in the wake of the latest Sunni-Shiites tensions in the country.

In their discussions, Berri and Daryan emphasized on “the unity of Muslims within national unity and the unity of the Lebanese,” the National News Agency said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday stressed that there will be no “political or partisan cover” for anyone who “harms unity and civil peace,” in the wake of the latest sectarianly-charged incidents in the country.

Speaking during his weekly meeting with lawmakers in Ain el-Tineh, Berri warned of “the scary scenes, the sectarian and regional slogans, infiltrators and those tampering with the fate of the people and the country.”

Security forces increased their presence around protest centers in central Beirut Wednesday, after several nights of violence disrupted two months of largely peaceful anti-government demonstrations.

Assailants attacked the office of a Sunni Muslim religious leader in the northern city of Tripoli, smashing in windows early on Wednesday, the National News Agency reported.