Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday received a phone call from Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, state-run National News Agency reported.

The phone talks tackled the issue of the new government’s formation, NNA said.

Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc on Thursday criticized the “exchange of accusations” over the formation of the new government, saying it “exposes the flaws of the approach of share splitting.”

It accordingly emphasized “the need for an understanding that leads to the birth of a new, effective and productive government.”

President Michel Aoun on Thursday followed up on new reports regarding a disastrous oil spill off Israel which has affected Lebanon’s shores.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday noted that he has called for an international conference on Lebanon because the Lebanese cannot reach an understanding on their own.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi received on Thursday a delegation from the Free Patriotic Movement in Bkirki, in the aftermath of his calls for a UN-sponsored international conference to handle the problematic Lebanese file.

Director of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Firass Abiad voiced optimism on Thursday urging virus-struck Lebanese to “never despair,” as the country witnesses a national vaccination rollout plan.

“The only way it seems to get good news about Covid and the vaccine is to shift your attention away from local news. Worldwide, Covid is on the decline. Many countries have managed to roll out the vaccine without scandal, and the results have been very promising,” said Abiad on Twitter.

The house of Deputy Ihab Hamadeh in Hermel was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and gunfire at dawn on Thursday, the National News Agency reported.

A Rhode Island businessman who runs an auto sales company illegally exported 19 vehicles to Lebanon, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Carlo Fakhri, 50, who operates D'Agostino's Auto Sales and Salvage, Inc., in North Providence, is charged with violating a law that requires him to provide the correct name, address, identification number, and contact information for the purchaser and receiver of each vehicle to the U.S. Commerce Department, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Rhode Island.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan broke his silence Wednesday evening over the controversy sparked by the vaccination of around two dozen MPs and parliament employees in apparent disregard for the national queue and the country’s electronic registration platform.

Speaking in an interview with state-run Tele Liban, Hassan said he took a “sovereign decision” by asking medical teams to head to parliament to vaccinate the lawmakers “in appreciation of their efforts, after parliament convened for seven consecutive days to approve the vaccine’s emergency use law.”

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that it has authorized 20 private companies to import Covid-19 vaccines into the country.

In a phone call with LBCI TV, a Ministry official said the local companies “have so far faced rejection from the companies that manufacture the vaccines.”