Democratic Gathering Bloc chief MP Taymour Jumblat met Tuesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkerki.

He was accompanied by a delegation from the bloc.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil's announcement that he might nominate himself for presidency had "a very negative resonance" for Hezbollah, informed sources said.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that Hezbollah circles were dismayed at Bassil's words.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday that he will call for a cabinet session over the educational file, this week or early next week.

"The education minister will deliver proposals regarding the educational file and the public sector teachers strike," Mikati said, adding that he will call for cabinet to convene by early next week at the latest.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat will meet with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh on Tuesday, after Jumblat postponed a previously scheduled meeting for health reasons, al-Jadeed said.

The media outlet added that Amal and Hezbollah will not take Jumblat's presidential initiative seriously, according to sources close to the Shiite Duo.

The agenda of the upcoming Paris meeting on Lebanon has “changed” and it might last for more than one day if the need arises, an informed political source said.

“Collective and bilateral meetings will be held among the delegations of the participating countries with the aim of reconciling stances to be able to devise a politically clear work plan for resolving the Lebanese crisis,” the sources told Annahar newspaper in remarks published Monday.

The Finance and Budget Committee convened Monday to study the draft law on "restoring the balance of financial regularity."

MP Ibrahim Kanaan stated after the meeting that all the required data is still missing, asking the government, the Banking Control Commission and the Central Bank to provide the needed information and figures.

State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat on Monday sent a memo to Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim asking him to “immediately” order the arrest of the money changers and speculators who are contributing to “the collapse of the national currency.”

The development comes ahead of a scheduled meeting for the central bank in which measures to improve the Lebanese pound’s value are expected to be taken.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat will continue his presidential file efforts and will visit Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh in the coming hours, MTV reported on Monday.

Jumblat will also dispatch his son, Democratic Gathering chief MP Taymour Jumblat, to meet with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki, the TV network said.

MPs Ghazi Zoaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil on Monday filed a new recusal lawsuit against Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

The lawsuit was filed before the Criminal Court of Cassation, with the two lawmakers citing “legitimate suspicion.”

Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud and a group of judges who support Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar “have started implementing decentralization in the judiciary,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.

Abboud and this group of judges “have started mulling the idea that Bitar practice his work from an office in Jdeideh’s Justice Palace, in an implication that this place is located in a Christian area and no one will dare to attack it,” al-Akhbar quoted prominent judicial sources as saying.