Lebanese Forces party chief Samir Geagea asked Wednesday the government, President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Miqati not to "bow to Hizbullah's intimidation" concerning the dismissal of lead investigator into the port blast case, Judge Tarek Bitar.

“If they stop the investigations, they must resign immediately,” he said.

Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar must be replaced or else Hizbullah, the Amal Movement and the Marada Movement will “suspend their participation in the government,” Hizbullah and Amal sources have reportedly warned.

A Cabinet session scheduled for Wednesday was postponed following consultations and an agreement between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Miqati, the Presidency said, as efforts continued to resolve a political standoff over the work of Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

Hizbullah accused the U.S. on Wednesday of interfering in Lebanon's investigation into last year's massive explosion at the Beirut port, with the aim of implicating the militant group and its allies.

Hizbullah lawmaker Hassan Fadallah's response to criticism from a State Department spokesperson comes amid a developing crisis engulfing the domestic probe. The investigation was temporarily suspended Tuesday amid legal challenges from defendants against lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

Justice Minister Henri Khoury is supposed to present “balanced” suggestions to Cabinet on Wednesday on the controversy surrounding Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, media reports said, after an escalation by Hizbullah and its allies forced the suspension of Tuesday’s Cabinet session.

Ex-minister and incumbent MP Ali Hassan Khalil considered the arrest warrant issued against him by the judicial investigator Tarek Bitar “illegal.”

“It is not based on any legal justification,” he said Tuesday, in a televised interview.

The Lebanese pound sold for more than 20,000 to the dollar on Wednesday, losing almost all the value it regained following the announcement of a new government last month.

The pound, officially pegged at 1,500 to the greenback since 1997, has lost more than 90 percent of its black market value since the start of an unprecedented economic crisis in 2019.

A Cessna-172 training plane belonging to the Aeroclub of Lebanon crashed into the sea off the Lebanese town of Halat on Wednesday with two people on board.

Member of the Democratic Gathering, MP Wael Abu Faour said Wednesday in a statement that “the Higher Defense Council refused to grant permission to prosecute Director of State Security Major General (Tony) Saliba, because the latter might expose all the correspondences with the presidential palace.”

“As expected,” he said, adding that “the reason why the permission to prosecute Saliba wasn’t granted is clear.”

The lead spokesperson for the external affairs of the EU, Peter Stano, said Tuesday that the Beirut port blast investigation has to be “completed as soon as possible,” and that it should be impartial, credible and transparent.

“The European Union recalls that the investigation into the Beirut Port blast should be completed as soon as possible, and that it should be impartial, credible, transparent as well as independent,” Stano said in a video message.