The Kataeb Party on Monday called for “resolving the obstacles that are hindering the formation of the government,” noting that the new cabinet must shoulder the responsibility of “addressing citizens' affairs and preparing a new electoral law.”

A Free Patriotic Movement delegation comprising MPs Alain Aoun, Ziad Aswad and Naamtallah Abi Nasr visited the headquarters of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc on Monday as part of an FPM initiative aimed at pushing for the adoption of a new electoral law.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced after talks in Ain el-Tineh Monday that Speaker Nabih Berri has officially offered him the public works ministerial portfolio.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh escalated his rhetoric on Monday and stressed after a meeting with Patriarch al-Rahi that he is ready for a confrontation as well as for cooperation with President Michel Aoun depending on the latter's messages.

“We refuse Aoun's punishment as a way to deal with us. We are ready to stand by Aoun if he wishes to have new relations with us, but we are also ready for a confrontation is he chooses to fight,” said Franjieh after a meeting he held with al-Rahi.

Media reports said that parties are mulling calls to hold a spiritual Christian-Islamic summit with the aim of backing President Michel Aoun and the new tenure, in order to provide atmospheres appropriate for the new government to function properly, the Kuwaiti As-Seyasah daily reported Monday.

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.