Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has accused the Axis of Defiance of over-reacting to the nomination of former minister Jihad Azour.

"They called him Tel Aviv's candidate and an American conspiracy between the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement," Geagea told Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, in remarks published Monday.

Ex-president and Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun has stressed that “our system is democratic and our constitution protects freedom of opinion.”

“Accordingly, every political party has the right to have a presidential candidate, without that drawing a rhetoric of treason accusations and threats of biblical proportions,” Aoun tweeted.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday stressed that running for president and nominating a president are “democratic and constitutional” rights.

“Respecting the dignities of candidates is an ethical and essential right in order to live together in peace, confidence and cooperation for the sake of our same country,” al-Rahi added.

International Monetary Fund official Jihad Azour, who has been nominated for the long-vacant Lebanese presidency, said Monday that his nomination is not aimed at challenging anyone but is rather a call for unity and breaking alignments.

On Sunday, the Shiite Duo's candidate Suleiman Franjieh said that Azour is the son of the establishment as he had served as a finance minister in the Fouad Saniora's government from 2005 to 2008.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Sunday said he has not “imposed” himself on anyone as a presidential candidate, adding that he has “no problem” in “agreeing on a patriotic and unifying candidate.”

MP Qassem Hashem of Speaker Nabih Berri’s parliamentary bloc has criticized the camp that supports Jihad Azour’s nomination, wondering if “this camp possesses the ability to secure the election of its candidate as president.”

The Free Patriotic Movement has denied remarks attributed to FPM chief Jebran Bassil by al-Jadeed TV as “totally baseless” and “misleading.”

Ex-president Michel Aoun told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in their meeting on Tuesday that the Free Patriotic Movement’s rapprochement with the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Change bloc is not aimed at securing the election of Jihad Azour as president but rather at diminishing Suleiman Franjieh’s chances, a media report said.

The longer-term objective is to “agree later on a third candidate,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Aoun as telling Assad.

Bishop Paul Abdel Sater and bishop Maroun Ammar met Friday in Ain el-Tineh with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, on behalf of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

Abdel Sater and Ammar had met Thursday with outgoing Progressive Socialist party leader Walid Jumblat and Abdel Sater had earlier met with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

A retrospective exhibition by Artist Majd Kurdieh has started in Beirut, presented by Fann à Porter in collaboration with Zaat.

On the old walls of Assafir building in Hamra, visitors can follow nine years of the artist's creative journey.