A diamond and art dealer was sanctioned Tuesday by the UK and U.S. governments for allegedly funding Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

The UK Treasury said it froze Nazem Ahmad's assets in the UK because he financed Hezbollah. Under the sanctions, no one in the UK or U.S. will be able to do business with Ahmad or his businesses.

Cabinet on Tuesday agreed to increase the private sector’s minimum monthly wage from 2.6 million to 9 million pounds, worth $92.50 at the country’s black market rate, which dominates the market. The ministers also raised the exchange rate used for calculating customs fees from 30,000 pounds to the dollar to the central bank’s Sayrafa platform, where the dollar is valued at 86,700 pounds.

Parliament earlier on Tuesday postponed municipal elections for up to a year amid concerns the government would not be able to secure the needed funding in time for the polling.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has met at the Elysee Palace with French presidential advisor Patrick Durel.

“We did not discuss (presidential) candidates and there is a French idea that was being circulated in this regard,” Gemayel said after the talks.

U.S. Embassy Beirut and the United Nations commence Tuesday cash distributions under the “Livelihood Support Program.”

The first tranche of this program, valued at $16.5 million, will disburse temporary financial support for Internal Security Forces (ISF) personnel.

Parliament passed Tuesday a law that extends municipalities' term for a second time for up to a year, in a session boycotted by the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb, Tajaddod and Change MPs.

Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi had urged the government to secure the necessary funds to start the elections on May 7, but government failed to secure the funds.

Paris believes that Suleiman Franjieh’s election as president is “still possible,” a media report said on Monday.

The five-nation group on Lebanon -- which comprises the U.S., France, KSA, Qatar and Egypt -- will meet soon to discuss the Lebanese presidential crisis and the possibility of launching new initiatives, a media report said on Sunday.

Esmail Qaani, who leads Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, has held a series of clandestine meetings with militant leaders across the region in recent weeks, The Wall Street Journal quoted “people familiar with the discussions” as saying.

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon appealed for calm late Friday after supporters of Hezbollah clashed with Israeli border guards as Iran and Arab countries marked Jerusalem Day.

The annual commemoration is staged in support of the Palestinian cause, and earlier in the day Palestinian factions paraded in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday pledged to respond against any Israeli attack in Lebanon following last week's major cross-border escalation.

Describing the flare-up as “an important and major event,” Nasrallah said that Hezbollah’s “policy of silence is the best choice in managing the battle with the enemy.”