The joint parliamentary committees convened Tuesday to resume discussing the capital control draft law.

"We have specifically modified the needed exemptions in the capital control," Bou Saab said after the meeting.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday held talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

Speaking to LBCI television after the meeting, the premier said he briefed the Speaker on his “positive” meetings in Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the Arab-Chinese summit.

There will be no dialogue on Thursday, the Berri-owned NBN TV said Tuesday.

The parliamentary session will be "exclusively for electing a president", the media outlet said, as the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement refused to participate in a dialogue that might have replaced the presidential election session.

The Lebanese Forces said Tuesday that they will not participate in a parliamentary dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri might call for.

Berri had announced last week that he would turn Thursday’s presidential election session into a parliamentary dialogue if the blocs agree to such a move.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil is trying to promote a number of presidential candidates, topped by Jihad Azour, who served as finance minister in Fouad Saniora’s first government, a media report said.

“Bassil has endorsed Azour for several considerations, most notably that he is a figure that was previously considered to be close to ex-PM Fouad Saniora and the March 14 camp, and accordingly the FPM chief thinks that a part of this camp might support him,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

The parliamentary dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri has called for is likely to take place, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

“Christian” parliamentary sources meanwhile told the daily that they have information that “a political settlement to elect a president is being prepared due to the international and Arab pressures and efforts.”

The Joint Parliamentary Committees have agreed to “put the capital control law aside after approving it pending the adoption of the rest of the laws that are related to the recovery plan,” Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab announced on Monday.

“We passed Article 4 of the capital control law and the discussions are now limited to exemptions,” Bou Saad said after a parliamentary committees session.

U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein has said that he does not believe that an Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu will renounce the offshore gas agreement that was recently reached with Lebanon.

In an interview with Annahar newspaper, Hochstein said that both Lebanon and Israel respect the international maritime border, adding that the deal has become a fait accompli.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said Monday that the French energy giant has mobilized the teams in charge of drilling operations in Lebanon's Block 9, as he met with caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad.

TotalEnergies said that it has launched a call for tenders to select a vendor for a new drilling rig in the first quarter of 2023.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Monday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi over a controversial cabinet session that had infuriated the Free Patriotic Movement.

The caretaker cabinet had convened last Monday to discuss "urgent" matters in a session boycotted by the FPM. FPM chief Jebran Bassil later blasted Hezbollah, Mikati and other parties over the session.