Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has mockingly said that "he can't sleep at night", as he downplayed U.S. sanction threats.

"They think they can intimidate me," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday.

The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, has inaugurated the newly rebuilt Fish Market in Sidon.

The Progressive Socialist Party will soon discuss the nomination of former minister Jihad Azour, PSP MP Wael Abou Faour said.

The lawmaker said all the bloc's MPs will vote for the same candidate.

Nineteen Lebanese officials, including Speaker Nabih Berri, might be sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department if a president is not elected this month, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Thursday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf had reportedly warned Wednesday that her country might impose sanctions on Lebanese officials if they continue to obstruct the election of a new president.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday stressed that he will not call for a presidential election session in the absence of “at least two serious nominations.”

“Parliament’s doors have not and will not be shut in the face of a presidential election session should at least two serious presidential nominations be announced,” Berri said in a statement, emphasizing that “distortions and threats” against him are “of no use.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday announced that France and the Vatican have asked him to talk to all of the country’s “components” regarding the presidential file.

“We will talk to everyone without exception, even to Hezbollah, and the efforts will start today,” al-Rahi told a delegation from the Press Syndicate.

Relatives of the Beirut port blast victims rallied Thursday in front of the Justice Palace to demand justice for their loved ones.

They said they will rally every Thursday, as they burned tires to protest the obstruction of the blast's probe.

Attorney General Judge Imad Qabalan on Wednesday heard the testimony of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh over the German arrest warrant that has been issued for him on charges of falsification and money laundering.

At the end of the session, Qabalan decided to release Salameh pending further investigations and to ban him from travel while keeping his two passports confiscated.

MP Salim Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement has said that the FPM has not officially endorsed Jihad Azour for the presidency in order to “secure the appropriate circumstances for his success.”

“He should not presented as a confrontation candidate,” Aoun added, in an interview with Radio All of Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has confirmed that an agreement has been reached between the opposition and the Free Patriotic Movement on Jihad Azour’s presidential nomination, noting that “the negotiations are moving forward.”

“He is a consensual, neutral candidate and not a confrontation candidate against Hezbollah,” Geagea added, in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.