Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against passing, in the 2022 state budget, new financial decisions similar to the new wage scale.

"We warn against trying to pass financial decisions that are more like a new veiled version of the new wage scale," al-Rahi ssaid.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed Al-Sabah met Sunday morning with President Michel Aoun in Baabda, hours after he arrived in Beirut and met with Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

After the meeting, the Kuwaiti minister said he is "carrying a Kuwaiti, Gulf, Arab and international message containing measures and ideas to build confidence again with Lebanon."

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday designated “Hizbullah-affiliated financial facilitator Adnan Ayad,” as well as “members of an international network of facilitators and companies connected to him and to Adel Diab, Adnan Ayad’s business partner and fellow Hizbullah financier who was designated by OFAC on January 18, 2022,” it said in a statement.

“The sanctions evasion efforts of those designated today demonstrate how Hizbullah gains access to the international financial system and raises funds in support of its acts of terrorism and other illicit activities. These actions undermine the stability, security, and sovereignty of the Lebanese people,” the Treasury added.

President Michel Aoun on Friday hoped the new year will witness “the beginning of Lebanon’s rise from the successive crises it has gone through.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has lamented the presence of “procrastination” in the Beirut port blast probe, stressing the importance of the issuance of an indictment by Judge Tarek Bitar.

President Michel Aoun said Thursday he hopes some nations won't use the Lebanese arena to "settle their regional disputes" nor to "back certain groups at the expense of others."

In a meeting with diplomatic corps at the Baabda Palace, Aoun affirmed his keenness on maintaining the best relations with all nations, including Gulf states.

OGERO has secured an amount of diesel sufficient until next June, Telecommunications Minister Johnny Korm has announced.

Internet services were disrupted in half of Beirut on Sunday because of diesel shortages.

Protesters and activists on Wednesday staged a sit-in outside the Justice Palace in Beirut in solidarity with a jailed man who took hostages Tuesday at a Bekaa bank and forced employees to give him $50,000 in cash from his own account.

The International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) said Wednesday that it has taken note of steps to reconvene the Council of Ministers, urging the resumption of its meetings as soon as possible.

The EU Delegation and the EU Member States on Wednesday urged Lebanon to resume Cabinet sessions, prepare for elections, reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund and ensure justice in the port probe.