Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has lamented that “no one today wants a settlement” in the country.

“But it is the thing we need the most. A settlement for the sake of the country and not for the sake of any party in this or that camp,” Jumblat added, in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper published Friday.

Interim Central Bank Governor Wassim Mansouri on Friday announced that the bank will not print Lebanese currency to cover for the state's deficit, stressing that financial regularity cannot be achieved without “passing the reforms.”

“I urge all political forces to keep the monetary authority out of political bickering, seeing as the current stalemate would negatively affect the economy and contribute to the isolation of Lebanon internationally,” Mansouri added at a press conference.

Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad on Thursday announced that a reconnaissance permit has been granted to a consortium of international companies to conduct a 3D seismic survey of Lebanon’s offshore Block 8.

“Today is a historic day in a journey that had started in the year 2010,” Fayyad said at a press conference.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said that he is not going to New York to “confront anyone or be a reason for obstructing any agreement related to the extension of UNIFIL’s mandate.”

“What concerns Lebanon is lowering the tensions that sometimes result from clashes between residents and some UNIFIL members as well as the tensions caused by Israel,” Bou Habib said in an interview with the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper published Thursday.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen Imad Othman has reassured that the security situation in Lebanon is “under control,” while warning over “the impact of politics on security and stability.”

“I sense that the (ISF) institution is in danger. There are parties targeting it because it is in control of security in the country. I don’t want to delve into details, but there is a direct and unjustified targeting of the ISF,” Othman added, in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Members of the hardline Christian group Soldiers of God overnight attacked a pub in Beirut’s bustling Mar Mikhail area over the “presence of homosexuals” in it.

Videos posted online showed the pub’s ransacked terrace and people locking themselves inside as a Soldier of God militant shouted threats and warnings.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has accused caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker Nabih Berri, without naming them, of obstructing gas exploration for years.

Transocean Barents drilling rig, which had arrived in Block 9 offshore Lebanon earlier this month, will start Thursday searching for gas.

The family of Elias Hasrouni, an ex-Lebanese Forces official who was abducted and killed in the southern town of Ain Ebel, on Wednesday met with caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi.

“The minister has information that is being followed up in the case and today we were reassured that things are on the right track to achieve justice,” the family said after the meeting.

An explosion was heard at dawn inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said.

The explosion resulted from “a hand grenade that was hurled near a school belonging to the UNRWA agency in the camp’s al-Fawqani street,” NNA said, adding that the incident caused no casualties.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi criticized Wednesday Lebanon's leaders who are calling for dialogue instead of electing a president.

"They are hiding behind dialogue and consensus, while there is only one constitutional solution," al-Rahi said, stressing that the solution is to elect a president in parliament.