French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged Lebanese authorities to initiate reforms in order to obtain financial support from the "international community" and save Lebanon’s crumbling economy from collapse, indicating that he will visit Beirut “within days,” media reports said on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated in remarks from Washington that the United States is supporting Lebanon as long as it succeeds at imposing reforms and its government is not controlled by Hizbullah.

Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn wired more than $860,000 to a company linked to one of the men accused of helping smuggle him out of Japan in a box last year, U.S. prosecutors said in a new court filing.

Lebanon on Wednesday confirmed 39 new COVID-19 cases, which is a significant one-day surge for the small country.

The lines snaked around the block. Then they swelled to fill the whole street, before they turned into a raucous mob of men shoving to the front of the line. There at the exchange bureau, they could buy rationed dollars, the hottest commodity in Lebanon.

The small country's financial meltdown has thrown Lebanese into a frantic search for dollars as their local currency's value evaporates. To get the precious hard currency, they must navigate labyrinthine regulations, exploiting any loopholes they can to rescue their earnings.

General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), conducted a one-day visit to Lebanon on July 8, 2020, the U.S. embassy said. 

McKenzie met with President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace, where he “reaffirmed the importance of preserving Lebanon’s security, stability, and sovereignty, and underscored the importance of the strong partnership between the United States and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” the embassy said in a statement.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks Wednesday with Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut Elias Aude after which he reiterated that he is not seeking to return to the PM post.

“I wanted to visit His Eminence, Metropolitan Aude so that we work anew for the capital Beirut and we have rejected all calls for dividing the capital and Lebanon,” Hariri said after the meeting.

A Lebanese businessman serving a five-year sentence in the United States for allegedly providing millions of dollars to Hizbullah arrived Wednesday in Beirut after his early release, local media reported.

Kassim Tajideen was sentenced last year in a federal court in Washington for his alleged role in a money laundering conspiracy aimed at evading U.S. sanctions. He was arrested in Morocco and extradited to the U.S. in 2017, where he was he was charged with laundering money for Hizbullah.

A rally was held Wednesday morning near Beirut’s airport in protest at the visit of the U.S. army's Central Command chief to Lebanon, the National News Agency said.

Al-Jadeed television said scuffles erupted between Lebanese troops and the demonstrators. It did not elaborate.

The meeting between Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil last week was a “foundational meeting,” a media report said.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper published Wednesday, Berri said he and Bassil will not allow anyone to undermine their new rapprochement.