President Michel Aoun’s adviser for Russian affairs, ex-MP Amal Abu Zeid, has held talks in Russia with Mikhail Bogdanov -- the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa.

Families laid to rest Wednesday victims of a fuel tank blast that killed at least 28 people in northern Lebanon amid anger and sorrow over the crisis-hit country's latest tragedy.

Residents from the southern city of Nabatiyeh overnight intercepted a patrol belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Optimism has surged on the possibility of forming a new government in the coming days while most Lebanese newspapers have published incomplete draft cabinet line-ups.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that his party rejects the smuggling of fuel and other subsidized goods from Lebanon to Syria, as he accused Washington of waging an “economic war” on the country.

“We reject smuggling and we do not accept it. We are not covering anyone. Let anyone come forward and say that Hizbullah has intervened for the release of anyone arrested by the Lebanese Army, the Lebanese security forces or the Lebanese judiciary on charges of smuggling diesel and gasoline to Syria,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the ninth night of the Ashura religious commemorations.

Gunshots and a shoulder-fired rocket have targeted a petrol station in the Beirut southern suburb of al-Laylaki, the latest in a series of incidents rattling motorists lining up in long petrol queues.

The NNA said the army deployed in the area after several people were wounded in the shooting, but did not provide more details.

Hospitals struggled Tuesday to operate amid life-threatening power cuts and telecom outages in the north Lebanon region of Akkar where a fuel tank explosion killed at least 28 people this week.

Lights and phone lines went out across the impoverished and marginalized region that has long suffered from an ailing power grid but that is now grappling with an unprecedented crisis amid severe diesel shortages.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called on Tuesday for a parliament session, to discuss President Michel Aoun’s letter on the subsidization crisis.

The session will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 20, at the UNESCO Palace.

The Public Works Parliamentary Committee, the caretaker ministers of energy and finance, Electricite du Liban, the private oil companies and the state-run oil facilities held a meeting Tuesday in the presence of a central bank representative, al-Jadeed TV said.

Fuel shortages threaten the provision of essential health and water services across Lebanon, putting thousands of families in Lebanon at risk of a “humanitarian catastrophe,” U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi warned on Tuesday.