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.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that the June 14 presidential election session will be held and that all scenarios will be possible during it, in remarks to his visitors published Friday in al-Akhbar newspaper.

Asked about the Democratic Gathering’s announcement that it would vote for Jihad Azour, Berri said that he was told Monday that the Gathering would cast blank votes, voicing surprise over the new stance.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Friday those who don't want to vote for one of the two competing presidential candidates in June 14 session of participating in keeping the presidential vacuum.

"Those who want real elections must choose one of the two candidates, otherwise they'd be voting for presidential vacuum," Geagea said.

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas to disperse scores of Lebanese protesters who pelted the Israeli forces with stones along the border with Lebanon Friday, leaving some Lebanese demonstrators and troops suffering breathing problems.

The tension on the edge of the Lebanese border village of Kfarshouba began earlier this week over the Israeli military digging in the area that Lebanon claims.

The Democratic Gathering bloc of the Progressive Socialist Party has officially nominated ex-minister Jihad Azour for the presidency, noting that “ex-MP Walid Jumblat was the first to propose his nomination as part of a package of names that he discussed with the various political forces.”

Jumblat’s aim was to reach “consensus and end the approach of confrontation,” the bloc said in a statement issued after a meeting in Clemenceau attended by Jumblat and his son MP Taymour Jumblat.

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Aroldo Lázaro has chaired a regular Tripartite meeting with senior officers of the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israeli army at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura.

“During the last couple of months, there have been a number of concerning developments along the Blue Line” he said. “Despite these events, active engagement has contributed to the prevention of potential escalation and helped maintain stability.”