Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Ministry strongly condemned in a statement on Monday, the terrorist bombings which targeted the Turkish city of Istanbul on Saturday evening leaving several killed and wounded.

“The ministry offers its condolences to the Turkish leadership, people and to the families of the victims who died in the convicted crime that targeted the institutional legitimacy in Turkey,” said the statement.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan said the negotiations happening at the level of forming a new cabinet “have recorded a clear progress,” and the latest contacts gave the “stalled formation a push forward.”

“There is clear progress in the negotiations happening at the governmental level, but the final visualization is to expressed by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. No doubt that the latest contacts gave the formation a push forward,” said Kanaan in an interview to VDL (100.5).

President Michel Aoun held phone talks Sunday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to offer him condolences over the victims of a bomb attack that killed at least 25 people inside a Cairo church in the deadliest attack in recent memory on Egypt's Christian minority.

MP Alain Aoun of the Change and Reform bloc announced Sunday that “the main obstacle delaying the formation of the cabinet will in principle be resolved in the next 48 hours and only the final touches will remain,” noting that “the government might be formed next week.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called Sunday for facilitating the formation of the new government and for passing a new electoral law for parliamentary polls.

Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Beirut Elias Aude called Sunday for supporting the country's new president and for “real national accord,” stressing that “loyalty must be for the State, the army and the constitution.”

“The ruler's duty is to seek the interest of the country and the citizens, not his own interests,” said Aude during a mass marking the eleventh anniversary of the assassination of MP Gebran Tueni, the former editor and publisher of An Nahar newspaper.

The Lebanese Forces has reportedly announced that it will not give up its demand to get the public works ministerial portfolio after it agreed to be excluded from the so-called sovereign portfolios.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh will visit President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Palace on Monday as part of a Bkirki initiative, a media report has said.

The political forces are seeking to reach a “broad settlement” over the distribution of the ministerial portfolios that are still a subject of contention so that the new cabinet can be formed soon, a media report said on Sunday.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr pressed charges against four individuals, two Lebanese and two Syrians, over affiliation to the Islamic State terrorist group, the National News Agency said on Saturday.

The suspects were accused of carrying out terrorist acts, preparing for suicide attacks, bombing security forces' centers and checkpoints in close proximity to official headquarters, NNA added.