Contacts between State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat and judicial authorities in France, Germany and Luxembourg have led to an agreement on a mechanism through which judicial delegations from the three countries will question banking officials in Beirut in a money laundering case related to Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, media reports said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut on Friday announced that U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea is still serving as her country's ambassador to Lebanon, following media reports related to her nomination by the White House for the post of U.S. Deputy Representative to the U.N.

"Embassy Beirut is proud of (U.S.) President (Joe) Biden’s nomination of Ambassador Shea to serve as the U.S. Deputy Representative to the United Nations," U.S. Embassy Beirut Spokesperson Julia Groeblacher said in a statement.

The Free Patriotic Movement’s withdrawal from the 2006 memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah is unlikely, a senior FPM official said, noting that “there is no strategic alternative to the MoU in both Mirna Chalouhi and Haret Hreik.”

The Constitutional Council on Thursday announced the annulment of some articles of the state budget and the “clarification” of other articles based on appeals filed by the Change parliamentary bloc and other parties.

“Our decisions are binding and the Constitutional Council is an independent authority that is not linked to anyone,” Council chief Judge Tannous Meshleb said at a press conference.

Lebanon has charged seven people for participating in an attack against United Nations peacekeepers that killed one Irish soldier in mid-December, a judicial official told AFP on Thursday.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were injured on December 14 when their U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the village of al-Aqbiyeh in the south of the country, a stronghold of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Paris attempts to help Lebanon elect a president are ongoing, diplomatic sources in Paris said, adding that they see no breakthrough on the horizon.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that there are no signs of a breakthrough in the presidential file in light of the existing divergence between the politicians.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib promoted himself as a potential presidential candidate during his latest visit to Washington, telling several officials whom he met that there is a possibility to secure domestic consensus over his name should his candidacy receive U.S. support, a media report said on Thursday.

Bou Habib argued that “he was a former ambassador to the United States and enjoys Western and Arab relations that allow for boosting his presidential chances,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

Washington and Paris have agreed on the “characteristics” that Lebanon’s next president should enjoy, which include being totally uninvolved in corruption, a media report said on Thursday.

The two capitals have also agreed that the new president “should have a sober-minded behavior and should be independent and distant from regional political axes,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to launch a presidential initiative when the conditions are ripe, a source said.

The source told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that Berri will launch his initiative, only when the domestic ground is fertile and ready for it.

Free Patriotic Movement sources have welcomed Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest remarks about the relation with the FPM.

“The same as Sayyed Nasrallah said that he does not want to withdraw his hand from the Memorandum of Understanding, the FPM also does not want to withdraw its hand, and the current flaw requires steps, initiatives and a discussion,” a senior FPM source told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Thursday.