Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called in front of his visitors for sidelining Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil in the presidential file and “moving to Plan B,” a media report said on Friday.

“Plan B is based on seriously promoting the presidential nomination of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh with the beginning of the new year,” informed sources told ad-Diyar newspaper.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday pledged to continue carrying out his “duties” despite any “obstructions or difficulties.”

“We hope the new year will be the start of Lebanon’s exit from the stifling crisis it is going through,” Mikati said, during an end-of-the-year meeting with the premiership’s employees.

A Hezbollah commander and his bodyguard, both Lebanese, were killed when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants targeted their military vehicle with a guided missile in Aleppo’s western countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

The attack also killed a Syrian national.

At a time the Lebanese were expecting French President Emmanuel Macron to visit the country, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu will arrive in Beirut in the coming hours, a media report said.

While in Lebanon Lecornu will spend New Year’s Eve with the French troops and will inspect some French sites and projects in the country, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

Gunshots hit al-Jadeed TV’s building overnight in Beirut’s Cola area, in the third attack against the TV network in four days.

“Heavy gunfire was heard in the channel’s vicinity and security forces guarding the building since several days said it was hit by several gunshots,” al-Jadeed said.

A fresh war of words has broken out between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the Free Patriotic Movement over signatures related to governmental decrees.

In a statement issued overnight, the FPM accused Mikati of “staging an act of forgery and using forgery in the issuance of unconstitutional and illegal decrees that contravene the National Pact,” charging that the premier has forged the signatures of the ministers of social affairs and defense on two decrees.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim will hold meetings over the presidential crisis after the holidays, a media report said on Thursday.

“He will not be carrying any initiative but will rather try to bridge differences and reach a common vision,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported, adding that his contacts “will involve all parties without exception in light of his good ties with everyone.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has informed Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat that he intends to propose a presidential initiative after the holidays, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The initiative will be based on “a comprehensive package with prior agreements on the president, the premier and reforms,” the daily said.

The latest meeting between Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat was “different than all the previous meetings and was not negative at all, contrary to all leaks,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The meeting witnessed “a common approach toward the presidential file” based on the two men’s calls for “agreeing on a unifying figure that can talk to all political parties and that would be acceptable to everyone,” the daily added.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is inclined to call for a new caretaker cabinet session, despite “all the pledges he has made, especially to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi,” a media report said on Thursday.

“In agreement with Speaker Nabih Berri, Mikati intends to call for a cabinet session in the beginning of 2023 and its agenda will include preparing a draft law for extending the terms of security and military chiefs ahead of sending it to parliament for a vote,” informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.