Prime Minister designate Najib Mikati criticized Tuesday the "theatrical" raid carried out by Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun on the Central Bank.

Aoun had entered the bank earlier on Tuesday, after a sate security patrol searching for Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh was not allowed to get in.

The Central Bank issued Tuesday a ruling that allows the payment through debit cards from fresh dollar accounts, starting July 25.

"The payments in fresh dollars will be made via the "Visa" and "MasterCard" companies," the Central Bank said in a statement, adding that the ruling will boost the economic activity.

Lebanon's state security forces raided Tuesday the residence of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh in Rabieh without managing to find him, media reports said.

The state security forces then headed to the Central Bank headquarters in Beirut to enforce a subpoena issued by Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun. Aoun arrived later to the Bank and entered it with a number of state security agents, as the patrol was not allowed to enter the bank by Beirut Public Prosecution Judge Raja Hamoush.

The Free Patriotic Movement said Tuesday that PM-designate Najib Mikati's vacation trip has cost Lebanon $250 million.

"Each day without a government costs Lebanon $25 million," the FPM posted on social media, urging Mikati to stop "wasting time" and to start forming a government.

The U.S. department of state has said in a statement that the U.S. is committed to countering Hezbollah and Iran’s "malign influence."

The statement was issued in memory of the victims and survivors of the 1994 bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the 2012 attack on a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, carrying Israeli tourists. The attacks were described by the U.S. department of state as "two heinous Hezbollah attacks, carried out with Iranian support."

A ministerial committee on Monday agreed to grant civil servants financial incentives aimed at putting an end to a public sector strike that has paralyzed state administrations.

The committee also decided to revoke a salary hike that had been recently granted to judges in an exclusive manner.

The Finance Parliamentary Committee on Monday “approved the amendments of the banking secrecy law in a manner that serves preventing tax evasion and combating corruption, terror funding and illicit enrichment,” Committee head MP Ibrahim Kanaan said.

“Our concern is transparency and preventing selectivity,” Kanaan added.

The Israeli army on Monday said it brought down a small quadcopter drone likely belonging to Hezbollah after it crossed from southern Lebanon into Israel.

“Earlier today, the Israeli Defense Forces detected the infiltration of a drone from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory before bringing it down. The aerial surveillance units monitored the drone throughout the incident,” Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee tweeted, adding that the quadcopter drone “seems to be linked to terrorist Hezbollah.”

President Michel Aoun on Monday stressed the need for the judiciary to issue rulings in the “pending cases, especially those related to financial lawsuits and the Beirut port blast crime.”

“The families of the victims and the detainees are still awaiting the judiciary’s rulings,” Aoun said in a meeting in Baabda with caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury, Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud, State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat and the judges Afif al-Hakim, Habib Mezher, Elias Richa, Dany Chebli and Mereille al-Haddad.

U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein may visit Beirut within two weeks, amid reports of progress in the file of sea border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel.

“A U.S. endeavor will kick off within the next two weeks, through an expected visit by U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein aimed at reviving the negotiations,” Lebanon’s al-Binaa newspaper reported on Monday.