Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri held talks Tuesday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Balace, in a protocol meeting that followed his re-election for a seventh term as parliament speaker.

Asked whether the issue of binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier was discussed in the talks, Berri said: “Certainly.”

MP Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement was on Tuesday elected deputy parliament speaker with 65 votes in the 128-seat legislature, as MP Ghassan Skaff, who is backed by the Progressive Socialist Party, garnered 60 votes.

Bou Saab won 64 votes in the first round of voting, failing to garner the 65 votes needed to be elected from the first round. Skaff garnered only 49 votes in that round as 13 blank ballots were cast.

"I will put the insults behind me... and approach the 'white votes' with a white heart," Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday, in one of his trademark quips, after being re-elected as parliament speaker for a seventh consecutive term.

65 lawmakers elected Berri while 23 blank votes were casted and 40 were canceled.

Speaker Nabih Berri was reelected Tuesday for his post with the votes of 65 MPs while 23 blank votes were casted and 40 others were canceled for containing political messages rather than a candidate's name.

Heavy gunfire erupted in some Lebanese regions after the result was announced.

Reformist MPs born out of the 2019 protest movement gathered Tuesday outside Beirut's port and met with families of the port blast victims ahead of the first Parliament session.

The independent lawmakers joined the victims' relatives in a symbolic march from the docks to parliament.

French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to visit Lebanon anew after he finalizes some pressing domestic files, a media report said on Monday.

“He has recently informed one of his top aides in the Elysee’s special crisis cell for Lebanon that he intends to visit Beirut immediately after the June 19 French parliamentary elections, and after he carries out changes to his international affairs team,” Lebanon’s privately-run Central News Agency reported.

The MPs of the Independent National Bloc -- Farid al-Khazen, Tony Franjieh and William Tawk – held a meeting Monday with MP Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement, who is running for the deputy parliament speaker post.

The meeting, on the eve of a parliamentary session to elect a speaker and a deputy speaker, was held at Khazen’s residence in Jounieh. It was also attended by ex-minister Youssef Saadeh of the Marada Movement.

The Appeals Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has issued a scheduling order for the pronouncement of the Sentencing Judgment in the case of Prosecutor v. Merhi and Oneissi in a public session on June 16.

On 18 August 2020, the Trial Chamber pronounced its Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case and unanimously found Hizbullah operative Salim Jamil Ayyash guilty beyond reasonable doubt of all counts charged against him in the amended consolidated indictment.

UNIFIL on Monday honored the contribution of partners in communities, civil society, religious institutions, troop-contributing countries, and others, as the mission marked the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

As May 29 fell on a Sunday this year, UNIFIL held its ceremony today at its Naqoura headquarters.

MP Mohammed Raad, the head of Hizbullah’s parliamentary bloc, noted Monday that there is no occupation in Lebanon “other than the Israeli occupation.”

“Show us if there is an occupation in Lebanon now other than the Israeli occupation so that we fight it with you. Enough with the deception of people. The elections are over and so are electoral slogans. Let us work for the sake of the people and the country now,” Raad said.