MP Najat Aoun Saliba of the so-called change bloc has stressed that she is not running for president, because she respects “the will of the people” who elected her as MP.

“I will perform my role to the fullest,” she added, in an interview with Radio All of Lebanon.

Hezbollah is working on encouraging the efforts aimed at expediting the formation of the new government, the party’s senior official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said on Monday.

“The social and living cost crisis in Lebanon is aggravating and one of the reasons behind its worsening is the absence of a government enjoying full powers and characteristics,” Qaouq said.

Dozens of Lebanese and Syrian migrants stranded for days on a sinking fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea are urging European coast guards to save them, saying that two children have died.

The roughly 60 migrants told relatives and volunteer groups with a satellite phone that two young children have died, and that the group has been without food, water, and baby formula for the past three days. On board are Syrian refugees and Lebanese from its severely impoverished northern provinces trying to reach Italy for job opportunities. They left Lebanon off the coast of the northern city of Tripoli about 10 days ago.

The last meeting between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati was "one of their worst meetings" and has sent the discussions "back to square one," said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Berri told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that based on the outcome of the last meeting between Aoun and Mikati, he has decided not to interfere in the government formation.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has notified adviser and deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab that he will visit Beirut later this coming week, Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s office said.

Lebanese media have speculated that both countries could soon reach an agreement in a maritime border dispute between the two countries, while Bou Saab said that most of the recent media reports are based on "speculation" and "are not accurate."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday accused rival parties of "blocking the formation of a new government and preparing, as usual, to block the presidential election."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned that “a deliberate presidential vacuum” would be “a conspiracy against what the presidency position represents in the republic.”

It would also be “treason against Lebanon,” the patriarch added in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Like many people in crisis-hit Lebanon, Elias Skaff used to wait for hours to withdraw cash at the bank but now prefers money transfer companies as trust in lenders has evaporated.

Lebanese authorities have arrested five State Security agents on suspicion of torturing to death a Syrian detainee, in the latest abuse allegation against the security services, a judicial source told AFP.

The 13 MPs of the so-called change bloc on Saturday launched their long-awaited presidential initiative, which calls for the election of a reformist president who is not part of the polarization between the traditional political forces in the country.