Throughout the Muslim and Arab worlds, either government neglect or outright hostility toward LGBTQ people, said Rasha Younes, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who investigates anti-LGBTQ abuses in the Middle East and North Africa.

In some countries, apparent advances for LGBTQ people have been followed by pushbacks. Lebanon is an example. Over recent years, its LGBTQ community was widely seen as the most vibrant and visible in the Arab world, with advocacy for greater rights by some groups, and gay bars hosting events such as drag shows.

The signatures that the decrees issued in Monday’s cabinet session need might lead to a new dispute between the Free Patriotic Movement and the rest of the government parties, ministerial sources said.

Hezbollah’s cover for Monday’s cabinet session was a “strong blow to the Free Patriotic Movement and its head Jebran Bassil, who will hold a press conference today and is expected to mainly address Hezbollah in it,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The Finance and Budget parliamentary committee, headed by MP Ibrahim Kanaan, convened Tuesday to discuss circulars and decisions issued by Finance Minister Youssef Khalil.

After listening to the minister, the committee decided to delay the implementation of two salary taxes resolutions.

Tashnag Secretary-General Hagop Pakradounian slammed Tuesday caretaker Industry Minister George Boujikian for defying the Tashnag Party.

Boujikian had attended Monday a caretaker cabinet session, despite a declared Free Patriotic Movement boycott and a decision by the Tashnag party not to attend.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun over a tweet alleging that Swiss banks had frozen accounts belonging to Jumblat and other Lebanese political figures.

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Ghassan Hasbani stressed Tuesday that “amid the presidential vacuum, parliament can only convene to elect a president.”

MP Salim Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement on Monday blasted caretaker PM Najib Mikati for holding a meeting for the caretaker cabinet despite the FPM’s boycott and rejection, noting that Mikati “should have formed a cabinet” in the five months that followed his appointment as PM-designate.

Two Hezbollah ministers on Monday defended their participation in a caretaker cabinet session boycotted by the ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement and ex-president Michel Aoun.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday strongly defended a cabinet meeting boycotted by the Free Patriotic Movement and suggested that the FPM does not care about the “death” of cancer and dialysis patients.