Gunshots hit al-Jadeed TV’s building overnight in Beirut’s Cola area, in the third attack against the TV network in four days.

“Heavy gunfire was heard in the channel’s vicinity and security forces guarding the building since several days said it was hit by several gunshots,” al-Jadeed said.

A fresh war of words has broken out between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Free Patriotic Movement over signatures related to governmental decrees.

In a statement issued overnight, the FPM accused Mikati of “staging an act of forgery and using forgery in the issuance of unconstitutional and illegal decrees that contravene the National Pact,” charging that the premier has forged the signatures of the ministers of social affairs and defense on two decrees.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim will hold meetings over the presidential crisis after the holidays, a media report said on Thursday.

“He will not be carrying any initiative but will rather try to bridge differences and reach a common vision,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported, adding that his contacts “will involve all parties without exception in light of his good ties with everyone.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has informed Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat that he intends to propose a presidential initiative after the holidays, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The initiative will be based on “a comprehensive package with prior agreements on the president, the premier and reforms,” the daily said.

The latest meeting between Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat was “different than all the previous meetings and was not negative at all, contrary to all leaks,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The meeting witnessed “a common approach toward the presidential file” based on the two men’s calls for “agreeing on a unifying figure that can talk to all political parties and that would be acceptable to everyone,” the daily added.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is inclined to call for a new caretaker cabinet session, despite “all the pledges he has made, especially to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi,” a media report said on Thursday.

“In agreement with Speaker Nabih Berri, Mikati intends to call for a cabinet session in the beginning of 2023 and its agenda will include preparing a draft law for extending the terms of security and military chiefs ahead of sending it to parliament for a vote,” informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has noted that “disputes and divisions within the Christian community are not behind the presidential election crisis.”

“The notion that if Christians agree the presidential issue would be resolved is a wrong notion, because we have a candidate and we’re voting for him in every electoral session. Meanwhile there is a Christian group that is allied with Hezbollah and does not want to vote for our candidate,” Geagea said in an interview with al-Massira magazine to be published Friday.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday hit back at remarks by former president Michel Aoun.

“You did not need anyone to obstruct you, seeing as you promised us hell and fully fulfilled your promise,” Berri said in a statement.

Ex-president Michel Aoun has charged that Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh is “the main culprit responsible for the situation that the country has reached,” as he noted that Speaker Nabih Berri was one of the main “obstructors” during his presidential term.

“All that I know is that Speaker Berri was against my election as president and he obstructed 18 files that I was working on,” Aoun said in an interview on OTV.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has slammed what he described as an “attempt to impose a president” by the Hezbollah-led camp, as he stressed that the country needs a “real” head of state.

“What is happening today is not due to the might of the Axis of Defiance, but rather due to the weakness of those who should have shouldered their responsibilities and are still refusing to do so,” Geagea said at an LF dinner.