An official of the Hizbullah-linked Resistance Brigades was killed overnight at a wedding in the Jiye area.

Mired in what the World Bank calls one of the worst economic crises since the mid-19th century, Lebanon has designated a new premier to try to break its political deadlock.

Albania is repatriating five Albanian women and 14 children from Syria's troubled Al Hol camp who were related to Albanians who joined Islamist extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq, the country's prime minister said.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Interior Minister Bledi Cuci were in Beirut meeting with Lebanese General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abass Ibrahim, who has played a key role in the repatriating efforts, together with intelligence services from other countries.

Lebanon on Wednesday marks a year since a fire at Beirut's port led to the country's worst peacetime disaster and precipitated its decline.

On August 4, 2020, a fire at the Beirut port ignited one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. It disfigured the city, took more than 200 lives and shattered Lebanon's psyche.

Contacts are underway behind the scenes to reach a full reshuffle regarding the draft cabinet line-up, starting by the number of ministers to the redistribution of sovereign porrfolios to the reform-related potfolios such as energy and telecom, media reports said.

The European Union said on Friday it was ready to impose sanctions on Lebanon's ruling elite over the political crisis wracking the country, after adopting a legal framework for such measures.

The crisis has left Lebanon without a functioning government since the last one resigned after a massive explosion killed dozens and destroyed swathes of Beirut in August 2020.

A “gloomy” and “cautious” atmosphere is engulfing the cabinet formation process after a “key obstacle” emerged, a media report said on Friday.

“The President has vetoed the confessional distribution that (PM-designate Najib) Miqati has suggested for the sovereign portfolios,” sources informed on the negotiations told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.

The president of the Federation for Tourism Industries Pierre al-Achkar issued a statement on Friday calling on the tourism sector to close on the occasion of the first anniversary of Beirut Port blast.

He announced the “solidarity of the entire tourism sector” with all those affected by the explosion “especially the families of the victims and martyrs.”

The outcome of the meetings that Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati held with President Michel Aoun in recent days is “neither negative nor positive,” informed sources have said.

While Miqati has said that he refuses to set a certain deadline for himself, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper that he “understands well the challenges that the country is facing and accordingly comprehends the cost of any delay in the cabinet formation process.”