An unidentified object carrying Hebrew writings was discovered Friday on the shore of the Lebanese region of Naameh south of Beirut, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

“It washed up to the shore as a result of the strong storm that is lashing Lebanon,” NNA said.

The new government will be formed in 2020, a source close to President Michel Aoun said Friday, shortly after a meeting between the President and Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab.

“The names are not ready until the moment,” the source told Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Friday signed decrees promoting armed forces officers.

A statement issued by Hariri’s office said he signed “all the decrees on the promotion of officers as sent to him by the Army Command.”

President Michel Aoun on Friday held talks with Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab, who visited him at the Baabda Palace.

The National News Agency said Diab did not make a statement after the two-hour meeting and that the PM-designate briefed the President on the latest developments pertaining to the government formation process.

Caretaker Minister of Interior Raya el-Hassan on Friday handed two prison improvement reports to newly elected head of Beirut Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf.

Hizbullah said on Friday the party is looking forward to the formation of a government of “specialists”, noting that it tried to “rename” PM Saad Hariri as premier but he refused.

President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly asked Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab to “decelerate” his efforts to form a new government after “sensing his eagerness to form it within days,” the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Friday.

With volunteer kitchens, makeshift clinics and donation centres, Lebanon's protesters are helping their compatriots survive the worst economic crisis since the civil war by offering services many can no longer afford.

Dozens of protesters staged a sit-in outside the central bank and the Lebanese Banks' Association building Thursday to protest the banks' policies amid unprecedented capital controls.

The protesters called on citizens to stop paying their loans and taxes and demanded that loan payments be rescheduled after amending interest rates.

MP Hasan Fadlallah of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc on Thursday said the Finance Parliamentary Committee discussed ways of retrieving funds transferred abroad in violation of restrictions.

"We are talking about $11 billion," Fadlallah said, without specifying who carried out such transfers or when they took place.