Ex-president Michel Aoun on Sunday said that caretaker PM Najib Mikati's call for a cabinet session has "unveiled the real reasons that made him, throughout five consecutive months, refrain from forming a government."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday stressed that the caretaker cabinet is “a cabinet for taking care of people’s affairs, not a cabinet for the agendas of political parties and blocs,” two days after caretaker PM Najib Mikati called for a cabinet meeting amid an ongoing presidential vacuum.

The closing ceremony of the Technical Assistance Facility for the Lebanese Private Sector (EU-TAF) project in Lebanon funded by the European Union and implemented by DAI was held on December 1.

The ceremony took place in the presence of Alessia Squarcella, Deputy Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation to Lebanon, European Commission and Sinisa Djuric, DAI Project Director along with more than 20 companies in the agri-food, creative ICT and healthcare sectors who benefitted from the 34-month support program to realize their commercial potential.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday defended his call for a cabinet session on Monday -- the first to be held amid a presidential vacuum that followed the end of Michel Aoun’s six-year term.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has called on those casting blank votes in the presidential election sessions to declare the name of their candidate.

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Friday stressed that the country’s next president must have two main concerns: “rescuing the country economically and cooperation with all parties.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has called Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to ask the blocs who are hindering the presidential election to stop the obstruction, before Thursday's session.

"From now on we cannot tolerate any more delays," Geagea said.

The European Council has adopted an assistance measure worth €6 million to the benefit of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

Reports about caretaker PM Najib Mikati’s inclination to call for a caretaker cabinet session have reignited his standoff with the Free Patriotic Movement, which refuses that any session be held amid the ongoing presidential vacuum.

In a statement issued overnight, the FPM had warned that such a session would “violate the constitution,” stressing that it will not “bow to any blackmail.”

Parliament is "not shouldering its responsibilities", charged lawmaker Antoine Habchi of the Lebanese Forces, before an eighth session that failed to elect a new president.

Habchi slammed the MPs leaving the session before the second round of voting, saying that "obstruction is not an acquired right."