The head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, on Sunday announced that his party knows whom it wants for president.

Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated his warning that the country cannot bear months of presidential vacuum, seeing as Lebanon's "dire" situation is much worse than it was in the vacuum period that preceded Michel Aoun's election.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday openly announced that his party wants a new president for Lebanon who “would reassure the resistance.”

“We do not want a president who would provide a cover for the resistance, because it does not need protection. We want a president who would not stab the resistance in the back,” Nasrallah added, in a televised address marking Hezbollah’s “Martyr Day”.

The Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon on Friday announced that it will seek a national dialogue in the country, as it stressed that the election of a president remains the top priority.

“There is no priority that is higher than the priority of electing a president and we call on MPs to elect a president immediately,” the Council said in a statement that followed a meeting.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, said Thursday that his party wants a new Lebanese president who would not “stab the resistance in its back.”

“Let us elect a president. If we want him to protect national sovereignty and preserve his constitutional oath and the interest of the Lebanese, let us agree on a president who would not be a confrontational president,” Raad urged.

U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein reassured Thursday that he is confident that Israel will continue to abide by the sea border demarcation agreement with Lebanon despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power.

In remarks to Al-Jazeera television, Hochstein added that gas companies will start working in Lebanon and that foreign investments will flow into the country to boost its prosperity.

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun was on Thursday notified of being summoned to appear before State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat on Mondya over the libel complaint filed against her by Speaker Nabih Berri and his wife Randa, the National News Agency said.

Aoun had published Wednesday a list of names of Lebanese officials who have frozen accounts in Switzerland, citing WikiLeaks as a source.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday called on all parties to quickly elect a new president and form a new government in order to "protect the country and preserve the state."

“This would end the caretaker state, which in its nature is temporary and limited to the matters that fall under this principle,” Mikati said.

Lebanon's divided parliament failed Thursday to elect a new president for the fifth time, with the post vacant since the mandate of Michel Aoun expired last month.

Michel Mouawad, whose father Rene Mouawad served as president, was the frontrunner with 44 votes on Thursday, still far short of the two-thirds majority -- or 86 ballots -- needed to win.

Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power announced Thursday that USAID will provide $50 million for Lebanese and refugee students to attend the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanese American University (LAU), and Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU).

Of the $50 million, $15 million will support 140 full undergraduate scholarships to AUB and LAU for financially disadvantaged yet academically meritorious students, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. "The remainder of the funds will provide partial need-based financial aid for about 3,500 students over the next three years to help students who can no longer afford tuition amidst Lebanon’s economic crisis," the statement went on to say.