President Michel Aoun on Friday presided over a meeting for the Higher Defense Council at the Baabda Palace that was dedicated to discussing the preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“The heads of the security agencies stressed at the Baabda meeting full readiness for imposing security during the May 15 elections as the army commander said that the army enjoys full preparedness,” MTV reported.

A ministerial committee on Syrian refugees said Friday that Lebanon cannot "bear this burden" anymore.

The ministers convened at the grand Serail in a session chaired by Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

President Michel Aoun's end-of-service benefits are also stuck in the banks "like any other Lebanese," visitors of the President have quoted him as saying.

"I have lost my lifetime savings too," Aoun said, according to the visitors.

President Michel Aoun on Friday stressed the need for an indictment to be issued in the Beirut port blast case, adding that the Judicial Council would then “acquit the innocents” and “condemn those responsible.”

Tehran is willing to provide Lebanon with fuel and wheat and to improve its comprehensive relations with the country, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said.

Abdollahian has held a phone call with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib, during which he welcomed the return of the Gulf ambassadors to Lebanon and he hoped for the success of the upcoming Parliamentary elections that will be held in May 15.

The Lebanese Army on Friday said it has detained five people in the northern city of Tripoli as they prepared to smuggle 85 migrants by boat to Europe.

The army said the smugglers were detained late Thursday as they were preparing to send 85 people on a boat after collecting a total of $400,000 from them. The boat was confiscated in a sea resort in the country's north, it added, and the detainees are being questioned.

The United Arab Emirates has released a Lebanese physician after holding him for more than three weeks over a tweet he published years ago, a person familiar with the case said.

The case of Dr. Richard Kharrat came to attention in early April when local media reported that he went missing from his hotel in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.

General Security said Thursday it has stopped taking appointments for passport renewals because of a rush that has depleted stocks of new passports.

Since 2020, requests for passport renewals have been ten times higher than in previous years, which has piled pressure on passport centers and "affected available passport stocks," General Security said in a statement.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati and U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi signed Thursday the “United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework” (UNSDCF).

The framework is meant to strengthen the existing and ongoing cooperation between both parties on promoting the principles of sustainable development, and build the foundations for a prosperous and inclusive Lebanese society, where no one is left behind, the U.N. said in statement.

A parliament session for looking into a request for withdrawing confidence from Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib was adjourned Thursday due to lack of quorum.

After the session was cancelled, Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan accused Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil of being the "de facto foreign minister," saying that his consultant Pascale Dahrouj is the one organizing the elections instead of Bou Habib.