Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Wednesday caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati of surpassing the judicial authorities, after the latter decided to form a committee to resolve territorial disputes.

"Land border disputes are within the judiciary's powers," Geagea said.

The Free Patriotic Movement said Wednesday in a statement that "the behavior of some parliamentary blocs and political forces suggests that they are pushing for normalizing the presidential vacuum that might expand to first-class positions that have traditionally been occupied by Christians."

"This threatens national partnership," the statement went on to say.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called Wednesday for an international conference on Lebanon after Lebanese officials failed to hold a dialogue.

"Officials in Lebanon refuse to sit together at a dialogue table because their private interests are more important than the public interest," al-Rahi said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati chaired Wednesday a meeting to discuss the 2023 state budget.

Deputy PM Saadeh al-Shami, caretaker Minister of Finance Youssef al-Khalil, Mikati's advisors Nicolas Nahhas and Samir al-Daher, and Director General of the Ministry of Finance George Maarawi attended the meeting at the Grand Serail.

The French judiciary has accepted the Lebanese state’s request for freezing the assets and properties of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and his associates Raja Salameh, Marianne Hoayek and Anna Kozakova, caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury said on Tuesday.

France is willing to propose adding Iran to the five-nation group on Lebanon, which comprises the U.S., France, KSA, Qatar and Egypt, al-Akhbar newspaper reported Tuesday.

The daily said that Paris has evaluated the outcome of its envoy's visit to Lebanon and has launched an action plan in two international and local directions.

The Lebanese Forces’ Strong Republic parliamentary bloc on Tuesday charged that “the dialogue wanted by the defiance camp is only aimed at torpedoing the Taif Accord and the Lebanese constitution.”

The investigations that the army is conducting regarding the killing of the two young men Haitham and Malek Tawk in the northern region of Qornet al-Sawda have so far not managed to “draw a clear picture of the incident’s circumstances,” a media report said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused again those opposing cabinet meetings of "seeking to spread vacuum."

In a statement Tuesday, Mikati said, in an apparent reference to the Free Patriotic Movement, that those who are claiming to preserve the president's powers have themselves practiced obstruction for years.

Israel sent a message to Hezbollah through U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea during the Eid al-Adha holiday, saying that the Israeli army “does not want a war” over two Hezbollah tents that Israel says are placed several kilometers inside the occupied Shebaa Farms, a media report said.